Mad Cow Disease Has Spread to Goats in France

UK experts test for BSE in goats

October 30, 2004

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/3967211.stm

British scientists have been asked to confirm the presence of "mad cow
disease" in a French goat.

If accepted this would be the first time bovine spongiform encephalopathy
(BSE) has been naturally transmitted to another species.

Routine tests by French scientists found traces of the brain wasting disease
in the goat two years ago.

The European Commission wants their discovery endorsed but has downplayed
the chance of further infection.

An abnormal strain of scrapie - from the transmissible spongiform
encephalopathies (TSE) family of diseases - was found in the French goat
during European-wide tests in 2002.

Further analysis showed the case was indistinguishable from BSE.

A mouse injected with tissue from the goat's brain went on to develop BSE
during the two-year laboratory testing period needed for the disease to
manifest itself.

The scientific data will be undergoing evaluation at a specialist European
research centre in Surrey over the next two weeks.

A spokesperson for the European Commission's Consumer Protection Office
explained: "We've been sending the research done in France to the EU
Reference Laboratory in Weybridge in the UK to have a look [at] how this
test was conducted."

Food safety

The spokesperson was keen to point out strict controls on the disposal of
animal carcases ensure there should be no danger of spreading the disease.

And the European Commission has confirmed the infected goat and its herd did
not enter the human food chain.

The Commission is waiting for the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to
confirm its position on these findings.

Following a BSE scare in the 1990s, the EU banned the use of animal parts in
feed and also removed high risk material such as spinal cord, intestines and
brain from the food and feed chain.

More than 100 people have died so far in Europe from the human form of mad
cow disease, mostly in Britain.

Previously the disease has spread between animal species only in
laboratories.

Published: 2004/10/30 09:41:31 GMT

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