Do cows fed BSE-infected meat and bone meal in the colostrum-producing stage pass on infectious BSE agent to their calves?

Direct ingestion of the infectious BSE agent via meat and bone meal (MBM) is commonly regarded as the main route of infection for cattle. I propose that another plausible route of infection has been overlooked so far, namely the ingestion of MBM by mother animals who susequently pass on the infectious agent in their colostrum and thus infect their offspring. This theory could explain why, although infection is thought to occur at very early stages in life, many BSE animals had not received MBM containing feeds when calves.