MAD COW DISEASE CONFIRMED IN COW ON UK FARM
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By; Sunmola Ganiyat
A case of classical Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, commonly known as mad cow disease, has been confirmed in a cow on a farm in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.
The Scottish Government announced the development on Wednesday, stating that precautionary movement restrictions had been imposed on the affected animal’s offspring and other cattle that had been in contact with it.
The case was detected through the country’s routine BSE surveillance programme, while investigations by the Animal and Plant Health Agency are ongoing to determine the source of the infection.
The government said the affected cow did not enter the human food chain and that Food Standards Scotland had confirmed there was no risk to human health from the isolated case.
BSE is a fatal neurological disease that affects cattle. Infected animals may develop symptoms such as nervousness, aggression, difficulty walking, tremors, reduced milk production and weight loss.
Authorities said the affected cattle and their offspring had been traced and isolated and would be destroyed in line with legal requirements.
Agriculture Minister Jim Fairlie said the swift detection and response demonstrated the effectiveness of Scotland’s surveillance system.
The Scottish Government also said strict measures remain in place to protect consumers, including the removal of specified risk materials such as the brain, skull and spinal cord from cattle intended for human consumption.
The United Kingdom experienced a major BSE outbreak during the 1980s and 1990s, resulting in the slaughter of millions of cattle and more than 170 human deaths linked to the disease’s variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
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