Meat techniques blamed for CJD cases

Age-old practices at small slaughterhouses and butchers were blamed today for a cluster of deaths from the human form of mad cow disease.

Age-old practices at small slaughterhouses and butchers were blamed today for a cluster of deaths in Britain from the human form of mad cow disease.

Traditional techniques at small abattoirs linked to local butchers led to five people dying in the Leicestershire village of Queniborough from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), the official public health report into the cluster said.

The five victims died between August 1998 and October last year.

The official investigation said the victims had all eaten beef that had been contaminated by BSE-infected animal brains.