Fears of "mad cow" disease spread (1)_____ the globe last week (2)_____ South Africa, New Zealand and Singapore joining most of Britain"s European Union partners in (3)_____ imports of British beef. In London, steak restaurants were empty following the March 20 announcement by scientists that they had found a (4)_____ link between mad cow disease from British beef and its human (5)_____, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease(CJD). Efforts to reassure consumers and governments proved (6)_____. France, Germany, Italy, Finland and Greece were among countries which announced bans (7)_____ British beef shipments. A committee of EU veterinary experts, meeting in Brussels, (8)_____ new protective measures but said transmission of the disease from cattle to humans was unproven and did not (9)_____ a general ban on British beef exports. Britain"s own main consumer group advised people to (10)_____ beef if they wanted to be absolutely sure of not (11)_____ CJD which destroys the brain and is always (12)_____. "Could it be worse than AIDS?" The stark headline in Friday"s Daily mail newspaper encapsulated the fear and uncertainty (13)_____ Britain. CJD (14)_____ humans in the same way that BSE makes cows mad—by eating away nerve cells in the brain (15)_____ it looks like a spongy Swiss cheese. The disease is incurable. Victims show (16)_____ of dementia and memory loss and usually die (17)_____ six months. Little is known (18)_____ sure about the group of diseases known collectively as spongiform encephalopathies, which explains (19)_____ some eminent scientists are not prepared to (20)_____ a human epidemic of AIDS-like proportions.