Austria’s health ministry has said that one more case of mad cow disease has been discovered in a 60-month-old ox in Graz, bringing the total number of cases to three in the country. The bovine was an import from Slovenia.
Mad cow disease, medically termed bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is caused by mutations in certain proteins in an animal’s brain. “The Federal Ministry for Health and Women was informed today at 1630 (local time)... of a positive BSE find. It was an ox from Slovenia,” local newspapers quoted the health ministry as saying.
However, the ministry quickly assured the citizens that there was no risk of the disease spreading to humans, as the animal’s meat had not entered the food chain. “This case proves once more that the Austrian BSE supervision program works completely in identifying infected animals and removing them from the food chain,” the statement from the ministry added. The remains of the infected ox were burned.
In Slovenia, five cases of mad cow disease have been reported in the last few years. During the period of 1980s and 1990s, a number of cases of mad cow disease were reported in United Kingdom. The infection causes Creutzfeld-Jacob disease in humans.
