October 11, 2006

New case of mad cow disease in France

A nine-year-old cow in eastern France has tested positive for mad cow disease, the sixth case detected in the country this year, officials have said.

The animal was tested after slaughter in September. It had been raised in Gresin, in the Savoie region.

The number of mad cow cases in France has been declining steadily, from a peak of 274 in 2001 to 31 last year.

France has recorded a total of 15 cases of the human form of the disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, since it first appeared in 1996.

There were more than 150 such human cases in Britain, which was at the epicentre of the mad cow phenomenon.