A preliminary research finding casts doubt on the current estimates of vCJD incidence. They could be underestimates.
Evidence from:
JW Ironside et al. BMJ (2006) Vol.332 p 1186 – 1188
“Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: prion protein genotype analysis of positive appendix tissue samples from a retrospective prevalence study”
The study examined tissues from 12,674 samples retained after surgery. Samples from three people were found to have evidence of prion disease. Two of these samples were tested for genotype at the codon 129. All clinical cases of vCJD to date have been of the type MM which forms a substantial minority of the population.
Further detail: