The Cows Are Mad

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The strange tale of the 1990s BSE epidemic.

Science has still failed to definitively answer two major questions about mad cow disease - where did it come from and how did humans get it?

The Covid-19 pandemic has been one of the weirdest things any of us has lived through. But there was another sickness that once stalked the nation and turned things very strange for a while.
 
In the 1990s Britain was hit by an epidemic of a fatal neurological disease in cows that also killed 178 humans. Science was split between government assurances of safety and dissidents warning of disaster. Trust in officials took a battering. Facts became blurred. And the grisly truth about our global industrialised meat industry was revealed.
 
30 years on, scientists and activists are still searching for answers to two big questions - where did mad cow disease originally come from and how did humans get infected? This crazy tale of cannibal cows, competing origin theories, and scientific dead ends lives on as the madness continues to spread.

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The Cows Are Mad: 3. Dissidents

3. Dissidents

BBC Radio 4 - The Cows Are Mad, 3. Dissidents

Dissident researchers are convinced the scientific establishment is wrong on BSE.

Dissident researchers are convinced the scientific establishment is wrong on BSE, and one microbiologist is convinced a major human health disaster is imminent.

Dissident researchers are convinced the scientific establishment is wrong on BSE, and one microbiologist is convinced a major human health disaster is imminent. Microbiologist Steve Dealler and his boss, Professor Richard Lacey are veterans of food safety scandals and when BSE hits, it’s right up their street. 

Steve is tasked with working out how many people have been exposed - and the news is not good. He’s convinced a major human health disaster is imminent - but the government keeps insisting beef is safe. The disconnect between his reality and everyone else’s nearly breaks him.

Written, presented and produced by Lucy Proctor.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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The Cows Are Mad

3. Dissidents

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