A case of mad cow disease has been discovered on a farm in Aberdeen, the Scottish government has confirmed.
The incidence of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), as the disease is officially known, was identified “as a result of strict control measures we have in place,” according to a spokesman for the authorities in Edinburgh.
It has been described as an “isolated case” and did not enter the human food chain, meaning there is no risk to human health, a spokesman for Food Standards Scotland said.
BSE attacks a cow’s central nervous system and is usually fatal. Before that, the animal becomes aggressive and loses its coordination, which is why the illness has been dubbed “mad cow disease.”
It has been linked to a fatal, brain-wasting disease in humans called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), which is transmitted by eating contaminated meat from affected cattle.
This is the first incidence of BSE in Scotland since a massive outbreak devastated the farming industry over several years.
It was first detected in British cattle in 1986 and between then and 2001, 180,000 cattle were affected. The outbreak reached its peak in January 1993, when almost 1,000 new cases were reported every week. Read more