January 27, 2014

Germany confirms BSE outbreak

Germany has confirmed bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a 10-year old cow farmed on the border with Poland.

The animal, now destroyed, did not enter the food chain and no offspring of the cattle are alive, the World Organisation for Animal (OIE) has announced.

Notification was issued on January 17, confirming the slaughter of the 10-year and five months old cow with the fatal neurodegenerative disease, as well as the destruction of all related offspring.

During routine surveillance, although no clinical signs were on show, farm veterinarians found the animals in Brandenburg's Eisenhüttenstadt district, in the far east of Germany.

Samples were then taken to the Friedrich-Loeffler Institute in Greifswald which returned positive results to the Directorate of Animal Health and Animal Welfare in Bonn on January 9.

The immunoblot tests found an atypical BSE case, which the OIE stated was not generally associated with an animal consuming infected feed.

An OIE spokesperson said: "The OIE does not recognise an atypical form of BSE as a distinct entity for the purpose of its international standards; therefore, it is not mentioned in the OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Code, which does not distinguish between different forms of BSE."

BSE was last confirmed in Germany in mid-2009. Control measures have been put in place.