Thousands ‘are at risk of vCJD from blood donations.’ Thousands of people could be infected with the human form of "mad cow" disease from blood transfusions each year because safeguards are inadequate, medical experts have warned. [News Source]

Chronic wasting disease not here, but it may be coming. Chronic wasting disease --the eqvivalent of mad cow disease--in deer, elk, and moose, now is known in wild and/or captive deer or elk in 14 states and two Canadian provinces. Unlike mad cow disease, however, CWD has shown no evidence of transmission to humans. [News Source]

Alabama’s case of mad cow highlights need for livestock tracking system . Investigators may never figure out where the Alabama cow with mad cow disease was born and raised, in part because the U.S. lacks a livestock tracking system the Bush administration promised two years ago. [News Source]

Scared sick? Not to worry. Given the media frenzy flogging exotic afflictions like mad cow disease, Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), bacterial meningitis, West Nile virus, and Lyme disease--and in the wake of a top Bush official’s advice that we brace for a possible avian-flu pandemic by stocking up on tuna--how scared should we really be? [News Source]