No need to panic, says chief vet as cows face BSE cull

FOUR cattle will be destroyed at the farm where a case of so-called mad cow disease has been found, but a senior veterinary officer today insisted there was “no need to panic”.

Th e c a s e o f B ov i n e S p o n g i fo r m Encephalopathy (BSE) was identified at the unnamed farm in Aberdeenshire as part of the routine testing of all fallen stock aged over four years.

A movement ban was put in place at the farm as investigators tried to establish the source of the fatal disease.

Scotland’s chief vet Sheila Voas said up to four other cows on the farm would be slaughtered and tested for the disease. Speaking on BBC Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland radio programme, she said: “The animal itself is dead. She died before she was tested, and there are three other animals, or possibly four, that will need to be slaughtered purely from a precautionary basis.” She said brain stem samples would be taken from these animals and tested for BSE.

Ms Voas believes the disease was not transmitted and occurred spontaneously in the affected animal, but she warned it could be several months before investigators could say for certain. “All the information we have is this is under control, there’s no reason for people to panic,” she added.

“It’s not the start of an outbreak, it’s a single isolated case that won’t affect the food chain.”

Officials said its discovery proved the surveillance system in place was working effectively. Millions of cattle were culled in the UK in the Nineties during a BSE epidemic. It can be passed on to humans in the food chain, causing a fatal condition called variant CreutzfeldtJakob disease (vCJD). Strict controls were introduced to protect consumers after the link was established in 1996.