Lancet Article Part 3

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From a public-health perspective several of the negative findings are

especially relevant. In the overall analyses, no evidence was found for an

increase in risk of CJD associated with occupational exposure to cows. There

was no association of CJD with the consumption of beef, veal, lamb, or milk

products. Although these findings are compatible with an absence of risk of

transmission of spongiform encephalopathies from cows to man through the

consumption of meat, our study is limited to patients diagnosed at or before

1995. Because the first patients with nvCJD, an atypical form of CJD that has

been associated with BSE, were described in 1995, any definitive conclusions

must await future research in nvCJD.

EU Collaborative Study Group for CJD

R G Will, R de Silva, M Zeidler, J Mackenzie (Western General Hospital,

Edinburgh, UK); A Hofman, C M van Duijn, D Wientjens (Erasmus University

Medical School, Rotterdam, The Netherlands); A Alpérovitch, J-P Brandel, L

Delasnerie-Lauprêtre (Hôpital de la Salpetrière, Paris, France); C Masullo, G

Macchi, S Almonti, V Filippini (Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Rome,

Italy); S Poser, I Zerr, A Giese, H Kretzschmar (Georg-August University,

Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany); T Weber (Hamburg, Germany); M Pocchiari, M

D'Alessandro, R Petraroli, F Cardone (Instituto Superiore di Sanita, Rome

Italy); E Granieri, G Lauria, R Pascarella (University of Ferrera, Ferrera,

Italy); V Bonavita, S Sanpaolo (Federico II University, Naples, Italy); G

Trabattoni (University of Parma, Parma, Italy); E Mitrova (Institute of

Preventative and Clinical Medicine, Bratislava, Slovakia).

Contributors

R G Will and A Hofman co-ordinated the study. J Mackenzie was the study

administrator. C M van Duijin supervised data management, analysis, and

interpretation of the collaborative analysis. N Delasnerie-Lauprêtre and A

Alpérovitch were responsible for data analysis of familial factors in the

collaborative analysis. C Masullo was responsible for data analysis of

nutritional factors in the collborative analysis. I Zerr and S Poser were

responsible for data analysis of medical history in the collborative analysis.

R de Silva and M Ziedler collaborated in data collection and analysis of the

UK study. D P W M Wientjens collaborated in data collection and analysis of

the Belgian/Dutch study. J-P Brandel collaborated in data collection and

analysis of the French study. T Weber collaborated in data collection and

analysis of the German study. V Bonavita and E Granieri collaborated in data

collection and analysis of the Italian study.

Acknowledgments

This research was done under the auspices of the EU Concerted Action on the

Epidemiology of CJD funded through the BIOMED1 programme. We thank Hanneke de

Breeijen and Koenders for their help in data management and data

analysis and H Diringer and Brown for advice. We also thank Jean-Philippe

Deslys, Dominique Dormont, Jean-Jacques Hauw, Jean-Louis Laplanche, and

Véronique Sazdovitch for

co-operation in the French study, which was supported by the Institut National

de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) and the Direction Générale de

la Santé (DGS). The German study was supported by the Bundesministerium für

Gesundheit (grant number 324-4473-05/3). We also thank Maurice Pocchiari and

the National Registry of CJD in Italy. The studies done in Italy were

partially supported by the National Research Council, Targeting Project on

Aging (contract number 95.01005.PF40) and by MURST. The studies done in the

Netherlands were supported by The Netherlands Institute for Health Sciences

and the Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research. The study in the UK

was funded by the Department of Health and ish Home and Health

Department. We thank J Ironside and J Bell for their co-operation in the UK

study.

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