Butchers' knives link to village disease deaths
Evidence that contaminated meat is to blame for the human form of mad cow disease is expected to be revealed in England later today.
An investigation in Leicestershire is believed to have found contamination via butchers' knives between animal brains infected with BSE and cuts of meat.
Five people died from vCJD in the village of Queniborough between August 1998 and October last year.
The report into Britain's first cluster of deaths from vCJD is thought to reveal that a series of coincidences in the way meat was prepared is to blame.
The findings of the investigation by Leicestershire Health Authority are due to be published this morning.
The British Department of Health has refused to comment ahead of a meeting in the village.
Leicestershire Health Authority says it has discovered how the people died but has refused to reveal its findings until later.
The investigation was launched last July and a progress report in November said lines of inquiry were concentrating on the meat supply chain.
