Making sense of bovine spongiform encephalopathy

The possibility of animals infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) causing Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans has caused public alarm resulting in the banning of the export of British beef. This paper explores the current understanding of BSE and its relationship to CJD. Although there are similarities between the diseases, there is no clear evidence of a causal link between the two.