[Bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Second update of data collected since the report of February 6, 1996].

The observation in 1995 and 1996 of 12 cases of a new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (V-CJD) in U.K. suggested a possible relation between this human cases and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Recent papers about this topic are reviewed: BSE transmission to macaques, transmission of scrapie with embryo transfer, incidence of maternal transmission, PrP protein released by platelets, diagnostic test by detection of PrP protein in tissues of sheep, epidemiology of BSE, french regulations, identification of cattle in U.K.