And this came against a backdrop of the mad-cow disease scare in the US, which put many consumers off eating beef.
The current wave of viral panic is of course the most recent chapter in a very long history of epidemics: Ebola in the 1990s, mad cow disease in the 1980s, polio in the 1930s and 1940s, the black death in the 14th century, and so on.
The extinction of elephants, the threat of mad-cow disease, outbreaks of the Ebola virus, and chemicals that mimic sex hormones are all fashionable.
Dozens of countries have banned the import of British beef, but Europeans have begun to avoid any beef, as the "mad cow" disease panic spreads.
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Since Thursday, when new research revealed the connection between "mad cow disease" and CJD, several nations across the world, especially in Europe, have turned their backs on British meat.
The hormone was prepared from human pituitary glands recovered from cadavers, and the absence of rigorous collection guidelines and purification procedures permitted contamination of the formulated drug with the agent that causes Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, the human equivalent of "mad-cow disease, " or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
Since 2004, the USDA has removed the brain and the spinal column, the parts suspected of causing mad cow disease in humans, from the food system.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the odds of a person contracting mad cow disease, even after consuming contaminated products, are less than one in 10 billion.
Italy's Corriere della Sera focuses on the problems and issues faced by the European Union in light of both the mad cow crisis and the foot and mouth disease.
In the wake of mad-cow disease, many student cafeterias and even a few mid-priced restaurants are joining gourmets in the switch to organic fare.
The beef-on-the-bone ban was imposed on the industry in 1997 after fears over new variant CJD, suspected of being the human form of mad cow disease.
But some patients are too allergic to tolerate the stuff, and others too squeamish, in the wake of mad-cow disease, to want it under their skin.
Last year she snapped up a new brief for food safety, created after the commission found itself embarrassingly ill equipped to deal with the problems of mad-cow disease.
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The virus was found in 10 cats out of 111 submitted to the Bristol University lab for tests to find more cases of the feline form of mad cow disease.
It is alleged that the Buffalo Grill chain continued serving beef from Britain after it was banned in the European Union and that this may have been the cause of cases of the human form of mad cow disease (BSE), known as variant CJD.
The Agriculture Department confirmed the first case of mad cow disease in America on December 23, 2003, in a cow born in Alberta, Canada, in April 1997, only four months before the United States and Canada began banning the use of brain and spinal cord tissue in cattle feed.
Some weeks ago, the government's scientists advised it that the deadly human equivalent of mad-cow disease might be transmitted through beef bones, although the risks were tiny.
Fungi, such as tree lungwort, has been found to contain properties that could fight the human form of "mad cow disease".
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But the White House is preoccupied by bioterrorism and mad-cow disease: and it wants to trim the budget deficit.
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Apparently, CJD is brought on by the same virus that causes "mad cow disease, " also known as BSE.
In the 1990s, he chaired the inquiry into BSE, or Mad Cow Disease.
Plaintiffs led by cattleman Paul Engler sued Winfrey, her production company and Howard Lyman, a vegetarian activist guest who warned of a possible outbreak of mad cow disease in the United States.
The report said that Conservative ministers and their officials repeatedly misled the public about the threat to human health posed by mad cow disease.
Japan is especially reluctant to do so, as was illustrated by a recent spat over American beef, in which fears of mad-cow disease strengthened the hands of protectionists.
"Recognizing the international scientific consensus that BSE (Mad Cow Disease) is a disease that is not detected in young animals, there isn't any nation in the world that requires 100-percent testing for BSE, " the statement said.
In December 1995, Mr Hogg tried to reassure the public about the safety of beef by attempting to get experts from the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) -- the government's advisory committee on mad cow disease -- to back his statements.
Australia barred British beef and by-products in 1996 as concerns mounted that mad cow disease could be linked to the fatal human condition, new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD).
Mad cow disease has been circulating and amplifying in the US herd since then.
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There's been a renewed warning in Britain that meat infected with BSE, or mad cow disease, could still be getting into the food chain.
Maybe mad-cow disease and its human analogues are merely the unfortunate by-products of some crucial, but as yet unperceived, mechanism.
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