Actually I didn't know this:

Cooking at temperatures above 600 degrees C doesn't kill the infectious agent in TSEs, nor do detergents and enzymes known to kill most viruses. Radiation doesn't faze it, and even after being buried in the soil for three years, enough prions remain to spread the disease. Chlorine bleach is one of the better disinfectants, in concentrations of 50 percent and higher, but sometimes even that has diminished effectiveness. It's difficult to find a neurologist like Antuono willing to autopsy the brain of a patient suspected of dying of a TSE. A splash in the eye of bodily fluid can carry the disease straight to the brain.

Beef by-products are now banned from human consumption in Europe (though not in the United States), but since human TSEs incubate for decades, no one knows what the final human death toll will be. Those who have already died shared one of three genetic variations for the human prion protein, a genetic make-up seen in 40 percent of the population. But "that doesn't mean others are immune," says UW's Aiken. The disease may merely incubate longer in people with other genes

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No beef-by-products in Europe? Interesting... Really scary crap. We've been thinking about cutting red meats out... but it is VERY hard!