Mad Cow Disease or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), originated from the common practice of feeding livestock high-protein feed supplements derived from rendered slaughterhouse waste and is spread by recycling meat and bone meal from infected animals back into cattle feed. It is also believed to cause Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the fatal human equivalent of mad cow disease.

By Joel Bleifuss, In These Times.

Mad Cow disease could kill up to 13 million people. But regulatory agencies are slow to act on this data, since precautions could threaten the bottom line of the meat industry.

Portugal Begins Slaughter of 50,000 Cattle.

January 25, 2001 The Associated Press.

Slaughterhouses across Portugal began killing the first of 50,000 cattle Thursday in an effort to purge herds of mad cow disease. Germany also ordered its first herd killed.

UN Fears BSE May Have Spread Worldwide.

Fri, Dec 22, 2000 AP WorldStream.

Meat and animal feed infected with mad cow disease may have been sold across the globe, raising the possibility of outbreaks beyond Europe, the World Health Organization said Friday. Maura Ricketts, a WHO specialist, said it was almost impossible to trace where suspect meat or feed might have gone.

Germans Fear The "Wurst" But Can't Stop Eating It.

Fri, 22 Dec 2000 Reuters Financial Report By Jan Dahinten.

The prospect of life without sausages is proving almost unbearable for many Germans despite their fear of mad cow disease. The innate craving for "wurst," the national dish in this country of simple culinary tastes, persists even though Germans realize that its consumption may eventually waste their brains. The fear of beef has driven many to pork and poultry sausages. Some people are stocking up on horse meat.

September 25, 2000 By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY.

More than half of the experts hired to advise the government on the safety and effectiveness of medicine have financial relationships with the pharmaceutical companies that will be helped or hurt by their decisions, a USA TODAY study found. The experts are supposed to be independent, but USA TODAY found that 54% of the time, they have a direct financial interest in the drug or topic they are asked to evaluate. Federal law generally prohibits the FDA from using experts with financial conflicts of interest, but the FDA has waived the restriction more than 800 times since 1998.