July 20, 2004

Mad-cow Test Positive At Italian Farm

A 7-year-old cow from a breeding farm in northwestern Italy has tested positive for mad-cow disease.

Those results bring the number of cases detected in Italy to 122 since testing began in 2001, the Health Ministry said yesterday.

The confirmation of the disease in the animal from Cuneo, an area about 45 miles south of Turin, was Italy's fifth confirmed case this year.

The European Union requires tests on cattle older than 30 months destined for slaughter.

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

Two years ago, Italy reported its first case of the human form of the brain-wasting illness, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which experts believe is transmitted by eating meat from infected animals.