BSE

Among the more worrying aspects of biological research is the discovery that the brain disease bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is identical to the fatal human condition Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). There is a general agreement that the introduction of bovine tissue from affected animals into the food chain was the cause of the recent BSE epidemic. Although the genetic modification of animals is unlikely to involve the genes active in BSE, the number of unanswered questions has caused much concern about the propriety of the procedure.