© SPLThere have been 168 definite or probable cases of vCJD in Britain
Far fewer people may have the human form of mad cow disease in the UK than previously feared, Health Protection Agency researchers have said.
There have been 168 definite or probable cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) since 1995.
Previous calculations had suggested thousands of people could be incubating the disease.
But the new research, in the British Medical Journal, found no evidence of vCJD in 63,000 tonsil tissue samples.
The researchers said the results, reported in the British Medical Journal, were "reassuring".
A government advisor said the study suggested that the number of future cases would be low.
There has been much debate over how many people in the population might be harbouring vCJD.
One team had extrapolated from the number of cases so far to predict around 200 further cases might be seen over coming decades.
But another small study of appendix and tonsil tissue had predicted a much higher level of cases - between 520 and 13,000.
