Mystery

Two cases of mad cow disease in Texas and Alabama seem to have resulted from a mysterious strain that could appear spontaneously in cattle, researchers say.

Government officials are trying to play down differences between the two U.S. cases and the mad cow epidemic that has led to the slaughter of thousands of cattle in Britain since the 1980s.

It is precisely these differences that are complicating efforts to understand the brain-wasting disorder, known medically as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE for short.

"It's most important right now, till the science tells us otherwise, that we treat this as BSE regardless," the Agriculture Department's chief veterinarian, John Clifford, said in an interview.

Since the whole BSE thing blew up in the US I have privately speculated that there is a form of BSE that is naturally occurring in cattle and it will eventually be picked up with the increased testing methods. I mean really it's only logical. There is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease which occurs naturally in humans and is very rare and can be distinguished from Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease which is caused by BSE. BSE is a disease cattle got from sheep originally and have passed to humans but might there not be a naturally occurring version, that is extremely rare and strikes cattle only just like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease? To me the logic is there.

I am not saying the natural occurring kind and artificial kind of BSE should be treated any differently but it wouldn't surprise me if the increased testing standards would turn it up some day. I think it's there and will need dealt with.