A case of classical Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, has been confirmed in a cow on a farm in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.
The Scottish Government announced the case on Wednesday, saying precautionary movement restrictions had been placed on the affected animal’s offspring and other cattle that were part of its cohort.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency is investigating the case to determine its cause.
According to the government, the infected animal did not enter the human food chain, and Food Standards Scotland has confirmed that there is no risk to human health from the isolated case.
“Classical Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) has been confirmed in a cow on a farm in Dumfries and Galloway,” the government said.
“At the affected facilities, precautionary movement restrictions have been implemented for the animal’s progeny and its ‘cohort’. For a confirmed case of classical BSE, this is normal procedure.”
Authorities said the affected cattle, including the animal’s offspring and cohort, have been traced and isolated. They will be destroyed in line with legal requirements.
What is Mad Cow Disease?
BSE is a rare and fatal neurological disease that affects cattle, progressively damaging the brain and nervous system.
Infected cattle may take several years to develop symptoms. Signs can include anxiety, aggression, nervousness, tremors, difficulty standing or walking, reduced milk production and weight loss despite having a normal appetite.
Once clinical symptoms appear, the disease is generally fatal. There is currently no proven treatment or vaccine for BSE.
The Scottish Government said its routine surveillance programme, which includes testing cattle aged over four years that die on farms, helped identify the case.
Agriculture Minister Jim Fairlie said government agencies acted quickly after the case was confirmed.
“Following confirmation of a case of classical BSE in Dumfries and Galloway, the Scottish Government and other agencies acted swiftly and decisively to protect the agriculture sector,” Fairlie said.
He said the rapid identification of the case demonstrated that Scotland’s surveillance system was working effectively.
“The fact we identified this isolated case so quickly is clear proof that our surveillance system for detecting this type of disease is working effectively,” he added.
Fairlie also thanked the owner of the affected animal for promptly reporting the case, saying the quick response helped authorities identify and isolate the animal and minimise the potential impact on the wider farming operation.
The government said strict food safety measures remain in place to protect consumers. These include the removal of specified risk materials from cattle carcasses intended for human consumption, including the brain, skull and spinal cord.
The latest case comes decades after a major BSE outbreak in the United Kingdom during the 1980s and 1990s, which led to the slaughter of millions of cattle and was linked to more than 170 human deaths from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD).