A timeline of events leading up to and including the BSE crisis
1732
Scrapie, the brain disease, is first recorded in sheep.
1883
French vet reports first case of scrapie in a cow.
1920s
Rendering, the use of slaughterhouse remains for animal feed by farmers, begins on a widespread scale.
1920-1921
First cases of "classical" Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) reported.
1957
Kuru, a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE), found in a tribe of New Guinea cannibals.
1970s and 1980s
Believed to be the period when scrapie "jumped" the species barrier and reappeared in cattle as BSE after changes in the rendering process.
February 1985
First signs of BSE. "Cow 133" dies after suffering head tremors, weight loss and lack of coordination. Symptoms are identified in a clinical report as a "novel progressive spongiform encephalopathy in cattle".
1986
The disease is officially recognised as an entity.
1987
Ministers are first told about the new disease. Meat and bone meal identified as "only viable hypothesis for cause of BSE".
June 1988
A law banning use of certain types of meal, the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy Order, is passed.
July 1988
Government announces slaughter policy for animals showing BSE symptoms.
July 1989
Europe bans export of British cattle born before July 1988 and offspring of affected animals.
November 1989
Ban on use of high-risk offal - the brain, spinal cord and spleen - for human consumption.
May 1990
Professor Richard Lacey makes first call for slaughter of all infected herds.
May 1990
The agriculture minister, John Gummer, claims beef is "completely safe" and appears on TV encouraging his four-year-old daughter, Cordelia, to bite into a beefburger.
1990
The Government sets up National CJD Surveillance Unit in Edinburgh to monitor CJD cases and investigate a possible link with BSE.
1992-1993
BSE reaches its peak with 100,000 confirmed cases. Incidence starts to decline from this point.
1993-1995
Four cases of CJD reported in dairy farmers who had BSE in their herds.
1995
The first known victim of variant CJD, 19-year-old Stephen Churchill, dies on May 21. Three more people die from the disease this year.
March 20, 1996
The health secretary, Stephen Dorrell, officially announces that there is a "probable link" between the cattle disease and vCJD.
March 27, 1996
The European Commission imposes a world wide ban on all British beef exports.
April 1996
The Government launches a legal challenge to the export ban, and introduces a scheme to slaughter and destroy all cattle over the age of 30 months.
1997
Councils announce they are banning beef in some 2,000 schools.
April 1997
Scientists find BSE can be transferred from cow to calf and offspring inherit susceptibility to infection.
September 1997
Studies on mice show convincing evidence for a link between vCJD and BSE.
December 1997
The government imposes the "beef-on-the-bone" ban.
April 1998
Start of investigation into the care, diagnosis and information given to vCJD victims and their families.
August 1999
The commission lifts ban on British beef, but France continues to enforce the embargo.
November 1999
Beef-on-the-bone ban lifted.
February 2000
A baby girl born to a mother with vCJD is also found to have contracted the disease.
April 2000
Tests on 3,000 human tonsil and appendix samples show no trace of vCJD prions.
July 2000
Investigation into "cluster" of vCJD cases around the village of Queniborough in Leicestershire.