French Develop Test
For Mad Cow Disease

PARIS, France — French scientists have developed a test for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.

This month's issue of Nature reports that the test can detect the disease before symptoms occur and is the best test available. Officials say it should be able to stop infected meat before it reaches the food chain.

In existing tests, infected tissue is injected into mice that then develop symptoms. The infected tissue tests with mice can take up to two years to produce results. The new procedure yields results within five hours.