Acknowledgements The author is indebted to staff in the Epidemiology Department, CentralVeterinary Laboratory (CVL), particularly Judi Ryan and Linda Hoinville, for their dedication andhard work over the last 11 years in , our attempts at providing some translational skills, as she had the epidemiological understanding of BSE and the related animal TSEs. Thanks are due to the members of the BSE research team in other scientific disciplines at the CVL, notably Gerald Wells and Michael Dawson, the and to Richard Kimberlin for invaluable discussions over the years.These discussions have been stimulating and have undoubtedly helped in maintaining the motivation in many large and long-term studies. Thanks are also due to Sarah Murray for her typographical and, at times translational skills, as she had the difficult task of producing the original typescript, and to all of the staff in the State Veterinary Service in the United Kingdom, cattle herd owners, their veterinarians and a large number of people involved in cattle industry.