Brain samples from a California man have been sent to France to be re-tested for evidence of human mad cow disease, United Press International has learned. Patrick Hicks, 49, of Riverside, Calif., died late last year and U.S. authorities in January ruled out variant Creutzfeldt Jakob disease, or vCJD, which humans can contract from eating beef products contaminated with the mad cow pathogen. Both Hicks’ family and his neurologist, Dr. Ron Bailey of Riverside Medical Center in Riverside, Calif., thought there still were unanswered questions about the final diagnosis and arranged for brain samples to be sent to experts in France. Bailey, who initially suspected Hicks might be the first case of vCJD tied to the consumption of U.S. beef, said the man had symptoms consistent with vCJD. The tissue will be examined by Dr. Jean Jacques Hauw at the Laboratoire De Neuropathologie at the Groupe Hospitalier Pitie-Salpetriere in Paris. © Copyright 2005 by United Press International

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