In the UK, however, the epidemic of variant CJD seems to have peaked in 2000 and is now in decline, with 156 cases being identified so far. However, a retrospective study of abnormal prion protein accumulation in appendix and tonsil samples from over 12,600 people in the UK has yielded three more cases, which suggests that the level of BSE infection in the UK population is much higher than the actual number of confirmed variant CJD cases indicates.