March 6, 2006
Mad cow disease emerges in Sweden
The European Commission and the Swedish Board of Agriculture confirmed Friday the first case of mad cow disease in Sweden.
The disease was found in a 12-year-old cow with milking fever.
Sweden had previously been the only EU country deemed to be at low-risk from mad cow disease.
In a statement Minister of Agriculture Ann-Christin Nykvist said that it in no way meant there was an increased risk of infection by eating Swedish beef.
Sweden conducts about 10,000 random tests for mad cow diseases every year.
Meanwhile, Netherlands detected its second case of mad cow disease for this year in an eight-year-old cow.
Dutch Ministry of Agriculture announced the disease was detected after tests were conducted on a cow already slaughtered.
Mad cow disease was detected in the other cows at the same farm as well. This is the second case in the Netherlands this year. The Netherlands has had 82 cases of mad cow disease since 1997.
