November 20, 2003

Czech To Slaughter 1,100 Cattle After Confirmation of 8th BSE Case

Czech officials are to slaughter nearly 1,100 cattle after confirming an eighth case of mad cow disease, according to the state veterinary administration.

Test results showed that a four-year-old cow from a southeastern farm had contracted bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, the eighth confirmed case among cattle in the Czech Republic.

More than 200 cattle will be tested and killed, in addition to the 874 already condemned to death after a seventh case was discovered in late October, Josef Duben said.

Of the approximately 1,100 total cattle to be euthanized, 60 were already slaughtered Wednesday and the remaining cows will be systematically destroyed by January.

The losses will total some 50 million Koruna (1.6 million euros, 1.9 million dollars), according to the administration.

The Czech Republic has carried out more than 450,000 tests for mad cow disease among its cattle.

BSE has been linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (vCJD) in humans, a fatal disease that has killed more than 100 people, mostly in Britain.

A European Union ban on British beef was imposed from 1996 to 2000 in an effort to stamp out the disease but isolated cases continue to be recorded.