Today in History - September 29: How a beloved national dish turned deadly

A bombshell scientific report released on September 29, 1997, confirmed a link between a human brain disease and one found in cows.

The British experts said the research showed overwhelming proof a new version of Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (vCJD), which had infected 21 people in the UK, was caused by eating meat containing Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) - known as mad cow disease.

BSE was passed between cows through recycling bovine carcasses for meat and bone meal protein, which is fed back to other cattle.

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The studies carried out on mice found the diseases caused similar brain damage and had the same incubation periods.

All the people infected with vCJD had a similar makeup of their genes, which the scientists said make them more susceptible to the brain disease.

In beef-loving Britain, the government and meat industry had played down the threat of mad cow disease during the 1990s, insisting there was no threat from humans.

The nation's Agriculture Minister had claimed UK beef was "completely safe", and had even appeared on television with his four-year-old daughter encouraging her to eat a beef burger.

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But the evidence proved otherwise: house cats began dying from beef byproducts in their pet food; and antelope in UK zoos fed commercial cattle feed suddenly died.

Then in 1995, the first human death in Britain from the new form of vCJD - a 19-year-old man - was recorded.

Following the 1997 report, cases of BSE skyrocketed, leading to 18 human deaths the following year.

By 2001, veterinarians reported more than 180,000 cows had been infected.

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In a bid to contain the outbreak, authorities ordered the mass slaughter of four million cattle.

But human deaths from vCJD continued in the UK, with the final number of fatalities totalling 178.

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