Here's the online version:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/538946.asp

Click the above link for the complete article.

Public health control measures, such as BSE surveillance, the culling of sick animals, or banning specified risk materials (SRMs), or a combination of these, have been instituted in Europe to prevent potentially BSE-infected tissues from entering the human food chain. The most stringent of these control measures have been applied in the United Kingdom and appear to have been highly effective. In June 2000, the European Union Commission on Food Safety and Animal Welfare adopted a decision requiring all member states to remove SRMs from animal feed and human food chains as of October 1, 2000; such bans had already been instituted in most member states. To reduce the possible current risk of acquiring nvCJD from food, travelers to Europe should be advised to consider either 1) avoiding beef and beef products altogether or 2) selecting beef or beef products, such as solid pieces of muscle meat (versus beef products such as burgers and sausages), that might have a reduced opportunity for contamination with tissues that might harbor the BSE agent. Milk and milk products from cows are not believed to pose any risk for transmitting the BSE agent.

even with the new health checks, BSE infected meat does slip in to the food chain every so often.

the most BSE infected meat was used in food for school children

Most scary of all...they feed farmed salmon...farmed salmon! they are stupid!!! there will be a new scandal guaranteed

as for mad cow and hoof and mouth being the same disease - nope. mod cow is similar to kuru in humans, and actually a bit like alzheimer's (sp?) where prions (proteins that don't act the correct way - although act is the wrong term since they aren't living) and they just clog up the pathways of the brain and initially cut off neurons and eventually you get massive cellular death and hence the pockets of dead cells.
there is more to it as well b/c you get mushy brains in the autopsies - sounds like what ebola does where it actually attackst he cellular wall perhaps and the interior is no longer containted, then you get all oozy?

Foot and mouth is an incredibly infective virus that virtually all animals can catch. most will make a recovery, its just that a)they can infect other animals b)after infection they are weaker making it harder for the farmer to tend to them. thats why they are killed. our farming industry is IMHO reaping what it sows. salmonella, BSE are their faults (and the government) foot and mouth is unfortunate but it just shows tyhere are not enough stringent checks on animals. (the virus came from asia so not really our fault!)

the scary thing is how prions spread. the theory is they are so chemically stable they convert other proteins to their structure, therefore becoming proteins! They aren't even sure why the body absorbs them. brilliant...the government have created something they don't even understand yet. While our food standards are best in thoery, and there are some good farmers, there are just as many who are driven by greed and profit. They feed chickens there own feathers to save money, they pump 'em full of antibiotics creating antibiotic resistant strains of superbugs, they sell food infected with the worst bacteria imaginable.