January 14, 1990 One hundred percent compensation was granted for BSE slaughtered cattle.
February, 1990 - Transmission to cattle had been established by the intracerbral transmission route, and transmission to mice by oral consumption had been achieved.
March 1, 1990 - European Union restricted export of live cattle to those aged less than six months and they were required to insure that these were slaughtered before they reached that age. Offspring of whatever age from infected or suspected females continued to be banned.
May 1990 - CJD surveillance unit was established.
May 10, 1990 - A cat died of Spongiform Encephalopathy which was the first case of Feline Spongiform Encephalopathy (FSE).
June 8, 1990 - European Union banned bone-in beef export from the United Kingdom and beef had to be provided from cattle where BSE had not been confirmed in the herd for two previous years.
September 1990 - A pig that had been inoculated with BSE infected brain tissue succumbed to the disease. It was then recommended that specified bone meal offal should not be fed to any animals. Import of specified bone meal offal was also banned by the European Union.
End of 1990 Twenty four thousand three hundred and ninety six cases of BSE were confirmed in United Kingdom.
March 27, 1991 - It was a major concern when cattle which were born after, the ruminant feed ban was imposed, became infected with BSE. It was suspected that this was caused by product in the distribution pipeline or cross contamination of ruminant feed by non-ruminant feed at the feed mill level.
March 1992 - Regulations indicated that head meat should be removed before the brain from all bovine.
1993 Surveillance of "downer" cattle started in the U.S. 6100 cattle have been examined, and to date (2000), no BSE has been detected.
July 27, 1994 - European Commission banned the export of bone-in beef except from cattle which had originated in BSE free herds the previous six years.
July 1994 - Standards were raised in England for meat inspection, making them more restrictive.
1994 - It was now suspected that most of the feed contamination came from cross contamination of rumen feeds by feeds containing rumen proteins. It was also suggested that one gram of infected material the size of two peppercorns was sufficient to infect cattle.
1994 - An "Elisa" test was developed for detecting rumen offal in animal feed. However, this test was not very specific.
1989 to 1994 - It became obvious that the substantial year-to-year reduction in BSE infection was caused by the ruminant feed ban.
1994 to 1995 - It was reported that the distal ileum of the small intestine was infected in a calf who had been orally infected with BSE for six months. This extended the SBO ban into the intestine and thymus of calves which had died at ages over two months.
April 1995 - It was required that a blue dye be placed on SBO to identify it from other offal.
1995 - Ban on the practice of extracting mechanically recovered meat from the spinal columns of cattle.
1995 - Cases of CJD were reported being found in farmers whose herds had BSE. Also several young people became infected. This was not typical of CJD, whose victims were usually older.
January to February 1996 - There was an increasing number of young (teens to 30's, vCJD) victims with CJD (usual age of victims for normal CJD is older adults).
1986 to 1996 - Utilizing the Scrapies model, during a ten year time span the government indicated that there was no evidence that BSE could be transmitted to humans. It was suggested that it was unlikely that BSE posed any risk to humans, and beef was safe to eat.
March 16, 1996 - CJD was identified in young people with the most likely explanation being linked to the exposure to BSE.
March 20, 1996 - Government announced that it was likely that CJD death in young people resulted in exposure to BSE and indicated that all animals over the age of 30 months must be deboned. This was followed by a total ban of all animals over 30 months of age being used for human or animal feed.
March 20, 1996 - Secretary of State for Health announced that ten young people had contacted a new variant (vCJD) of the invariable fatal Creutzfeldt-Jakob's Disease (CJD) and was probable that they had caught the human form (vCJD) of BSE.
March 20, 1996 One hundred and sixty thousand cattle affected by BSE had been slaughtered and another 30,000 that were suspect were also slaughtered.
1999 - Over 2000 cases/year of BSE are still occurring. Not only is there a concern over beef, but there is also a concern over tallow, gelatin, medical products that are swallowed, injected, or inoculated, surgical devices, cosmetics, waste derived from the manufacturing of these products or directly from these carcasses.
September 2000 - There were over 80 cases of vCJB, this disease and the frequency seems to be growing. Almost all the victims of vCJB have been in the United Kingdom and only four other victims have been diagnosed elsewhere. Over 170,000 cattle have died or been destroyed due to BSE and many more have been slaughtered as a precautionary measure in the United Kingdom (compared to fewer than 1,500 elsewhere). Most of these infected animals seem to be traceable to British/source animals or infected feed. Over 4.7 million British cattle had to be slaughtered and the carcasses burned or buried as potential dangerous waste.