September 12, 2005

Austria and Denmark confirm latest cases of mad cow disease

Austria has confirmed a case of BSE, or mad cow disease, in a cow imported from Slovenia, according to the country's government. The Austrian government has since notified Slovenian authorities about the confirmation.

The five-year old infected cow came from Ljutomer municipality in Slovenia and reportedly marked the sixth confirmed case of BSE in Slovenia since 2001.

Slovenian authorities immediately ordered all calves from the infected cow to be culled, imposed a farm quarantine and stopped all trade of live and slaughtered animals from the affected farm, after routine test results turned up positive for BSE. A sample was then sent to Austria for confirmation.

Meanwhile, Denmark has also confirmed a latest case of BSE in a nine-year-old dairy cow from the northern Jutland region, the country's government said.

The government reported that a EU laboratory in Britain had confirmed Danish suspicions that the cow, which died recently, was infected with the disease.

Danish officials said the infected cow came from a herd of 350 dairy cows, which it belonged to for four or five years. The herd would be kept under observation and the dead cow's offspring would be traced. But no decision has been made so far to cull the animals.

This was Denmark's 14th BSE case since the disease was first discovered in the country in 1992.