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: Episodes 6-10

Episodes 6-10

BBC Radio 4 - The Cows Are Mad, Episodes 6-10

30 years on, where did mad cow disease come from and how did humans get infected?

Today, science has failed to definitively answer two major questions about mad cow disease - where did it originally come from and how did humans get it?

After the government admits a link between BSE in cows and vCJD in humans, the quest for answers begins - how did this happen? 

In part two of this omnibus edition, a grieving mum questions the official narrative and a former government minister casts doubt on the official BSE story. The crisis becomes a lightning rod for other safety issues in the countryside, as an organic farmer turned self-taught scientist investigates his own BSE theories, and a new animal madness emerges in North America, as history repeats. 

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

Episodes 6-10

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