In experiments on mice infected with scrapie, the Swiss, American and British researchers managed to deactivate the signalling cell.

BBC: Holding back prion diseases

The ministry would also like to oversee a wider distribution of genes from the small percentage of British rams that are resistant to scrapie, a sheep disease similar to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease as it is more commonly known.

ECONOMIST: The search for long-lived sheep sperm

Mr Schwartz is a former director of the Institut Pasteur in France, and his book maps out with great clarity the scientific investigation into how scrapie a disease that has long been known to afflict sheep came to cross the species barrier to cows, and then from cows to humans.

ECONOMIST: Food safety