1.   Mad cow disease started when parts of infected sheep were ground up and mixed with cattle feed.

2.   Cattle originally got the disease after eating organs and other waste-parts of infected sheep.

3.   The disease may have spread to cattle through feed made from the rendered carcasses of infected sheep.

4.   Unlike cattle, it seems that BSE in infected sheep can pass into other sheep through blood.

5.   Agriculture Minister Nick Brown acknowledged there was thus a risk that infected sheep could have been exported before the outbreak was discovered.

6.   But the poll was taken before widespread coverage of the slaughter of possibly infected sheep in Vermont.

7.   Cows are believed to have become infected through feed containing bone meal from infected sheep.

8.   Cows are believed to have become infected with the disease through feed containing bone-meal from infected sheep.

9.   EU agriculture spokesman Gerry Kiely said in Brussels Wednesday that proposals to take potentially infected sheep parts out of the food chain were purely a hedge against scientific uncertainty.

10.   EU agriculture spokesman Gerry Kiely said new proposals to take potentially infected sheep parts out of the food chain were a hedge against uncertainty.