Some more facts for those who are unaware, quoted from the Guardian magazine in 2001:
In 1996, the British government finally banned all animal-rendered protein from being fed to farm animals and ordered the mass slaughter of all cattle over 30 months old. 4.7 million beasts, in a bid to remove BSE infection from the 10 million strong national herd.
But the measures were almost always too little too late. Because of the long incubation period in cattle, upto 5 years, large numbers of apparently healthy but infectious animals were fed to the British population as pies, sausages, steaks and Sunday roasts. In total, an estimated 750,000 BSE-infected cattle entered the British food supply.
As late as 1995 , British slaughterhouses were still allowed to "mechanically recover meat", even though the end product was almost certain to contain the most dangerous BSE-infected parts of the cow.
MRM (mechanically recovered meat) was classified as real meat and added to baby food, hamburgers, pies and sausages to bulk out the beef content.
It's hard to think of a better way to spread the BSE agent around in human foodstuffs. The food industry itself is still refusing to disclose how much MRM was fed into the human food chain and what sort of products contained the meat substitute.
In 1997, 17 year old Stacey Robinson and 24 year old Pamela Beyliss from Queniborough, Leicestershire were the first two victims to develop human mad cow disease, they were in the same hospital ward. Pamela's last words were " Will I be saved".
As a safety measure , the USA and a host of other countries, ban blood transfusions from anyone who has lived in Britain in the last 20 years for more than three months. But cow by-products end up in a bewildering range of everyday items, from jelly in pastries to office furniture. Bovine serum is used in the manufacturer of insulin and polio vaccines. Beef tallow, industrialised processed fat, finds its way into creams, ointments, gelatine in pill coatings and even toothpaste.
Prions are amongst the most infectious agents known to man. In cattle, just one gram of BSE infected brain tissue is enough to infect a 500kg cow.
Prions cannot be killed by heat, radiation, boiling or chemical destruction. Anyone who has had a surgical operation in Britain in the past 15 years has already potentially been exposed to vCJD through the use of surgical instruments - prions cannot be destroyed by the normal sterilsation techniques.
So much more about BSE/vCJD in this fascinating article written by Kevin Toolis for the Guardian magazine dated 22.09.2001.
Conspiracy theories I dont think so, unlawfully killed 100%.