U.K. Youth Ate 'Mad Cow'-Risky Meat

August 15, 1997

NEW YORK (Reuters) - So far, at least 20 young adults in the UK and France have developed a fatal neurological disorder that may have been caused by eating meat from cows with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or "mad cow disease."

Now a study appearing in this week's British Medical Journal reveals that, if indeed BSE can cause human disease, the typical diet of teenagers and young adults may raise their susceptibility to the illness.

An analysis of eating habits in the UK showed that teens and young adults were indeed more likely to be eating "riskier" meat products in the late 1980s, the time when the BSE was at its peak among cattle.

The new variant of the human neurological disorder, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease or CJD, does not usually strike younger people. CJD, (which has yet to be conclusively linked to BSE) follows disease stages characterized by confusion, disorientation, coma and death.

The survey of 2,197 people showed that 45% of 16 to 24 year olds ate hamburgers and kebabs, compared to only 13% of those aged 50 to 64, according to lead study author Dr. Sheila Gore, a senior statistician at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Biostatistics Unit in Cambridge, U.K.

"The quantities consumed by those who ate these products also decreased noticeably with age," she wrote. Meat pie and meat pastry consumption was also higher in the younger age groups, though beef consumption increased with age. And older individuals also reported eating other meat products more often than younger people.

Beefburgers and the meat pies may contain mechanically recovered meat, a potential source of contamination with the agent that causes BSE, write the study authors.

"Mechanically recovered meat is basically meat that is removed from an animal's carcass using things like high-powered water jets," said Jon Cope, a spokesperson for the MRC, a government-funded agency in the U.K. that allocates research grants. "It's the sort of thing that goes into pies and pasties and mince meat and that kind of thing."

Mechanically recovered meat is now strictly regulated. Since 1996, the recovered meat can only come from young cows under 30 months old and the use of the spinal column is prohibited. Brain and other nervous system tissue is thought to be the primary source of the agent that cause BSE.

"Mechanically recovered meat whilst it's certainly not being posited as the cause of the new variant CJD, its one of the things that could cause it, because of the inaccuracy of the tools and the water jets could come into contact with the spine and other parts of the cow that are suspect," said Cope.

Because the surveys conducted in the 1980s were not designed to answer questions about BSE, it's not clear if all the meat products were beef-derived or from pork or other sources. "Improved categorization of the data - for example, to differentiate pork from steak and kidney pies and types of sausage and burger - would be needed," Gore concluded. SOURCE: British Medical Journal (1997;315:16-32)