Origins of BSE linked to African antelope

Researchers said mad cow disease can be traced to a species of African antelope.

Professor Roger Morris said the most likely explanation for CJD in Britain is that the BSE-infected antelope were fed to British cattle in the 1970s.

The team used an advanced computer model to test possible theories to chart the spread of the disease which ravaged the British beef industry in the 1990s.

Scientists believe imports of game to safari parks in the south west of England are to blame.

Prof Morris, of Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand, has said: "I have some other hypotheses which are all wildlife origin theories and I have all of the steps in the infection process ... and I know that for African antelope every step in the sequence could have occurred."

He said the evidence "very strongly favoured" the antelope theory.

The academic added: "The wildlife hypothesis best fits the data. It is something that needs to be checked out very carefully.

"The problem is that antelopes that suffered from this disease will rapidly get eaten by lions and hyenas so finding an antelope in the wild that has the disease would be a major challenge, a needle in the haystack kind of thing."