Estonia finds first case of mad cow disease

Posted on April 25, 2006 by Mad Cow

April 24, 2006

Reuters

TALLINN- Estonian authorities have detected mad cow disease in a dead 11-year-old cow after a routine test at a slaughterhouse, the Agriculture Ministry said on Monday.

If confirmed, it would be the country's first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a disease that destroys the brains of cattle.

"The rapid test needs to be confirmed with a positive test for BSE and the results from that test will be out on Wednesday," Ago Partel, Director of the Veterinary and Food Authority, told Reuters.

The cow was from a farm in Jogevamaa county, southeastern Estonia, the Agriculture Ministry Press office said.

BSE was discovered in Britain in 1986 and devastated the country's beef industry. Individual cases of BSE have recently been found in cows in Japan, Canada and the United States.

More than 160 people have died from the human form of the disease, variant Creuzfeldt-Jakob Disease, believed to be contracted by eating meat from infected cattle.

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