Concern about a surge of "mad cow disease" in France has proved a boon to the country's prion researchers. Prime Minister Lionel Jospin announced this week that the government will triple funding for research into prions, the abnormal proteins that are suspected of causing mad cow disease and its fatal human version, vCJD.
The move came after the agriculture ministry reported that there have been 80 cases of mad cow disease in France so far this year. That is equal to the number of cases over the previous 11 years, but still far short of the 170,000 cases recorded in the United Kingdom since 1988. And although France has documented just three human cases of vCJD, compared to 85 in the United Kingdom, news of the surge sparked what the press has called "a national psychosis." Jospin's package to calm fears, according to the newspaper Le Monde, includes an indefinite ban on giving livestock feed that contains animal bone and tissue, which is believed to spread the disease, and boosting the prion research budget to $27.5 million, starting next year.
