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Revised February 2012 Key facts
- Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is a rare and fatal human neurodegenerative condition.
- The consumption of food of bovine origin contaminated with the agent of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), a disease of cattle, has been strongly linked to the occurrence of vCJD in humans.
- 175 cases of vCJD were reported in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (United Kingdom), and 49 cases in other countries from October 1996 to March 2011.
- Following the successful containment of the BSE epidemic in cattle, the number of cases of vCJD in the United Kingdom has declined since 2000.