The risk of Germany banning British beef imports put BSE back on the public’s agenda. But how much of a risk is there to humans? Kathryn Little, Diane Palmer and Dianne Swiers examine the evidence and assess whether nurses have changed their eating habits

The threat of a German ban on British beef in 1994 posed a serious threat to the British beef industry. The German public appears drastically to be reducing its beef consumption although the risks of contracting Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) from infected beef are purportedly hypothetical.