January 16, 2004

Italy Reports Two Mad Cow Cases

Two Italian cows from separate breeding farms in northern Italy have tested positive for mad cow disease, the Health Ministry said Thursday. These are the first mad cow cases detected this year.

The country's total is now up to 117 cases, the ministry said. The disease was confirmed by testing done at a Turin zoological institute that serves as the national control centre for the disease. Italy detected its first case in 2001, after the European Union ordered mandatory tests on cattle older than 30 months destined for slaughter.

Fifty cows tested positive in 2001, 36 in 2002, and 29 in 2003.

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, eats holes in the brains of cattle and is incurable.

Two years ago, Italy reported its first case of the human form of the brain-wasting illness, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, in a young woman in Sicily. Experts believe the human form of the illness is transmitted by eating meat from infected animals.