February 17, 2004

Another mad cow word

Continuing our series on mad cow terminology (here and here), we can add a new one: bovine amyloidotic spongiform encephalopathy, or BASE, cited in a new PNAS study (apparently dated Monday but not yet on the PNAS Early Edition site) and discussed in this NYT story today. As of this moment, even Google doesn't have it.

The reported results are distressing news because (quoting the NYT) "the discovery of new forms suggests that many cases of 'sporadic' human disease — by far the most common kind, responsible for about 300 deaths a year in the United States — are not spontaneous at all, but come from eating animals."

Posted by Mark Liberman at February 17, 2004 12:30 AM