1.   Consumers in Germany increasingly have shunned beef since fears arose three years ago that BSE, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, could be transmitted to humans.

2.   Consumers throughout Europe shunned beef.

3.   Consumers in Germany have shunned beef since fears arose that bovine spongiform encephalopathy, the so-called mad-cow disease, could be transmitted to humans.

4.   Meanwhile, consumers are registering their own opinion by shunning British beef.

5.   And its beef is being shunned abroad, with a ban taking effect Thursday in neighboring Austria.

6.   But consumers have shunned beef across the EU, sending prices and demand plummeting.

7.   But consumers have shunned beef across the EU.

8.   Consumers are shunning British beef after a possible link was established between a lethal human brain disease and its animal equivalent in British cattle.

9.   That discovery triggered a nationwide scare with consumers shunning local beef.

10.   They fear the European public will continue to shun all beef if British meat returns to the market.