WHY ARE THE COWS MAD?

A South Jersey woman says she's tracked 12 cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease to eating at the Garden State racetrack:

Authorities are studying Mahan's case because of questions about her diagnosis. Her death certificate said CJD, and Skarbek was told it occurs in approximately one in every million people.

But Skarbek became suspicious when she stumbled upon Carol Olive's obituary in her local paper three years after her friend's death.

She says, “In the first paragraph, it said she died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. And I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, that's what Carrie died of.’ And in the second paragraph it said she worked at the Garden State Racetrack."

Which is also where Carrie Mahan had worked for years, along with Skarbek's own mother.

Skarbek’s mother, Pat Hammond, says, “I mean, it was just a coincidence, only two, right? But then she took the ball and she read all about what CJD was.”

That's when Skarbek found yet another local man, radio announcer John Weber, a season-pass holder at the track who had also died from CJD. And it didn't stop there.

Skarbek says, “Right now, I'm up to 12 confirmed cases of CJD, where it says CJD on their death certificates and where they all ate at the racetrack.”

Skarbek believes the common thread that ties the CJD deaths together is meat tainted with mad cow disease served at the Garden State Park racetrack sometime between 1988 and 1992. Today, after years of sagging ticket sales, the track is being demolished to make way for an office park.

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