Fear over mad cow disease sweeps Cookstown - 1990 headlines

Local butchers - in line with the government - were attempting to put housewives’ minds at ease by stressing that people had ‘overreacted’.

A number of butchers have admitted that the public are growing suspicious opting for other products such as lamb and pork.

Archie Knipe who owns a butcher’s shop on Molesworth Street, said he feels the media have blown the whole affair our of proportion.

“The media have got their hands on this latest bit of information and are exaggerating it,” he said.

“We have had scares about chickens, lamb and fish and now it’s beef.

Officials from the UK Government have begun testing a cat which it is feared may have caught the disease from eating offal.