It may have started with the death of a cow on a farm in Pitsham, in 1984 – two years before "mad cow disease" (Bse) was officially identified. It resulted in millions of animals being destroyed in an effort to control the disease and the deaths so far of 226 people from the linked human disease, called variant CJD, or "the British disease" in some quarters, has caused the lingering deaths of 176 Britons and nearly 50 others around the world, including three in the US. The whole episode has cost the British taxpayers billions. Civil servants were urged by the BSE inquiry to be less ready to sit on bad news. Governments are less tempted to ignore scientific advice.