BSE did not cause variant CJD: an alternative cause related to post-industrial environmental contamination

The new prion diseases that have emerged in the last 15 years are bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (variant CJD). Although initially confined to the UK, these diseases have recently emerged in other European countries. The accepted cause of the human disease is that BSE spread from cattle to humans by the consumption of infected beef. However, the evidence that supports this is very thin. This article describes this evidence and lists a series of hypotheses concerning the cause of both BSE and variant CJD. The final hypothesis is based on recent evidence linking prion diseases to environmental factors including manganese. High environmental availability of manganese is associated with the prevalence of those prion diseases not linked to BSE. Therefore it is quite possible that BSE and variant CJD have emerged as a result of manganese-rich industrial pollution that has only occurred in the last century.