A case of “mad cow disease” has been identified in a dead cow at a farm in Wales.
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Only one case of BSE was identified in cattle in the United Kingdom animals past year, following three cases in 2013.
Officials were working to investigate the circumstances of the case, she said.
If you’re reading this chances are you’re under 30 years of age, which means that if you were even born last time mad cow disease hit the United Kingdom, you were but a wee bairn. Whilst the disease is not directly transmitted from animal to animal, its cohorts, including offspring, have been traced and isolated, and will be destroyed in line with European Union requirements.
The cow was aged over four and had died, which automatically triggers a test for the disease as part of strict control measures.
There have been no previous incidences of BSE in the United Kingdom this year, according to the World Organisation for Animal Health.
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease in cows that affects the brain and spinal cord by basically turning them into jelly (it’s not a good way to go).
Variant CJD has been linked to the deaths of almost 200 people in Great Britain who consumed meat from infected animals in the late 1980s.
But he did not believe the finding was a huge cause for concern.
Authorities have been quick to reassure the public that there is no risk to human health as the risky prion had not entered the human food chain. “In addition to the measures we have in place for fallen stock and animal feed, there is a strict control regime to protect consumers”, said Evans.
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William Powell, Welsh Liberal Democrat shadow farming minister and assembly member for Mid and West Wales, said: “This is, of course, very disappointing news”.
