New research to be published in this week's Nature apparently firms up the notion that the nv-Creutzfelt-Jakob disease found in a very small number of people in the U.K. is the same as "mad-cow" disease.
Click here for the New York Times coverage of this story.
But the new research may raise more questions than it answers.
The study does not prove you get nv-Creutzfelt-Jakob disease from eating beef. According to the research, when BSE and nv-Creutzfelt- Jakob disease were injected into mice brains, similar lesions developed. Fine. But, if the BSE passes from animal to man, it would be through the gastrointestinal tract, rather than by hypodermic needles into the brain. It's hard to believe that the digestion process would have no effect on BSE.
So stay tuned to see what develops!
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