How many of us can remember ‘Mad Cow Disease’ or to give it its correct moniker Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or thankfully, the shortened version BSE? It is some 10 years since the last reported case, but we all remember the scenes in the UK of hundreds of dead cows and steers being burnt in massive pits.

It has been reported that a case has been confirmed on a farm in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The Scottish government has already quarantined the area.

BSE caused serious damage to the British beef industry during the 1990s and 2000s, which resulted in a block on exports of the meat to the EU for a decade. During the peak of the outbreak in 1993, 1,000 new cases were reported every week.

However due to the controls in place now, which were severely lacking in the 90’s, it is highly unlikely that the food chain will be infected and there will be no repeat of the chaos and human affect as before.