UNCLEAN, UNCLEAN

Mad cow disease found in French goat

European scientists have found mad cow disease in a French goat – the first naturally occurring case known to hit an animal other than cattle.
The finding immediately raised fears that bovine spongiform encephalopathy – which can cause variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in people – has crossed to other species eaten by humans.
The goat, which was slaughtered in France in 2002, was first believed to have scrapie, a disease of goats and sheep similar to BSE but not infectious for humans.
It took more than two years to determine that the illness was likely BSE because scientists implanted the infected material into mice to see if they would develop the illness. They did.
At least 148 people in Britain alone have died from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease after eating tainted meat during an outbreak of mad cow disease there in the 1990s.