One in 2,000 Britons could unknowingly be a carrier of the human form of mad cow disease, exacerbating fears among some scientists that a second outbreak could occur.
Only 177 people have died after eating meat infected with BSE in the 1980s and 1990s, despite a large proportion of the population being exposed before it was established that the disease could cross into humans.
Now a survey of 32,000 removed appendixes has found that 16, although from patients who seemed not to be affected, contained abnormal proteins of the sort that cause variant CJD.
The study, published in the British Medical Journal, estimated a higher prevalence of such “carriers” compared with previous research and reiterated the need for safeguards to remain in place