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OKAY BACK FROM THE VET OFFICE 🩺

The UK Introduced A Ruminant Feed Ban On 14 June 1988

It Took Effect On 18 July 1988

That Ban Covered Ruminant Protein In Ruminant Feed

A Veterinary Review Says The Mad Cow Outbreak's Exact Cause Is Unknown

It Still Cites Strong Evidence Pointing To Tainted Meat And Bone Meal

Other Control Measures Also Began From 1988

Every Cow Suspected Of Having Mad Cow Disease Had To Be Slaughtered

Its Remains Had To Be Disposed Of As Well

Reporting Clinical Neurological Disease In UK Cattle Became Mandatory

Surveillance Also Targeted Cattle With Neurological Disease

The UK Banned Specified Bovine Offal From Human Food In November 1989

Strong Evidence Ties Eating Infected Offal To Variant CJD In People

That Evidence Points Particularly To Brain And Spinal Cord Offal

The Over Thirty Month Rule Began In March 1996

It Removed Cattle Older Than 30 Months From The Food Chain

Some Other Countries Later Followed These UK Measures

Feed Bans In Affected Countries Were Effective At Reducing Cases

Infected Cattle Can Take 30 Months To 8 Years To Fall Ill

Annual UK Cases Rose From 446 In 1987 To 37,280 In 1992

UK Cases Then Declined Rapidly As A Result Of These Measures

After 2010 Fewer Than 10 Were Reported Each Year

Just Under 2.2m Cattle Were Killed Under The Over Thirty Month Rule

That Total Was Reached By The End Of March 1997

Of Those Cattle 128,000 Carcasses Were Directly Incinerated

Most Of The 2.2m Were Rendered Into Meat And Bone Meal And Tallow

Variant CJD Was Also Linked To Blood Transfusions In People

A Search Found 48 People Given Blood By 15 Later Variant CJD Donors

One Developed Symptoms 6.5 Years After A Red Cell Transfusion

That Donor Gave The Blood 3.5 Years Before Developing Symptoms

The Authors Said This Raised The Possibility Of Spread By Blood

They Added That Past Dietary Exposure Could Also Have Caused It

Yet The Patient Was Far Older Than Most People With Variant CJD

Without Transfusion The Odds Were About 1 In 15000 To 1 In 30000

A Review Of Variant CJD Counts Four Infections Linked To Transfusion

All Four Recipients Got Blood That Was Not Leucodepleted

Leucodepletion Of All UK Blood Components Began In 1999

A Study Traced 67 People Given Blood By Variant CJD Donors

The Review Reports No Further Transfusion Cases

It Calls That Encouraging And Suggests Leucodepletion Worked

Yet Animal Studies Found Any Blood Component Could Potentially Infect

Close Monitoring Showed Clear Effects Of The UK Feed Ban

Cases Still Appeared In Cattle Born After It

One Paper Put Them At 60 Percent Of Confirmed Cases At The Time

Investigators Checked Whether Infected Feed Was Still Reaching Cattle

Until 1990 Pig And Poultry Feed Could Use Meal From Any Cattle Tissue

Mills That Also Made Cattle Feed Were Suspected Of Cross Contamination

A National Survey Found It Had Happened By Accident In Some Mills

An Offal Ban In Any Feed From September 1990 Should Have Stopped That

In 1995 It Became Clear That Ban Had Not Been Fully Followed

The European Union Later Saw Cases Born After Its Own Feed Ban

That Total Ban Began 1 January 2001 In The Older Member States

A European Food Safety Authority Report Counted 60 Cases Born After It

They Were Of The Classical Or Unknown Type

The Report Says The Source Cannot Be Determined For Any Single Case

It Weighed Maternal Environmental Genetic And Medical Sources

Feed Exposure Was More Likely Than Any Of Those

The Data Offer Some Support For Possible Maternal Transmission

Possible Environmental Contamination Gets Some Support Too

Both Apply To An Undetermined Number Of Cases

Tainted Feed Is The Only Known Risk Factor In The Veterinary Review

It Describes Atypical Strains As Uncommon

They Are Typically Found In Cattle Aged Between 8 And 20

These Strains Seem To Emerge Randomly And Spontaneously