A case of Mad Cow Disease, also known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), has been confirmed on a farm in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.
The Scottish Government announced that precautionary movement restrictions have been implemented on the affected animal's offspring and its "cohort"—other animals in close proximity.
BSE is an untreatable and progressive brain disease in cows. Humans can contract a variant of the illness, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, by consuming meat from infected animals.
Officials confirmed that the infected animal did not enter the human food chain. Food Standards Scotland has stated there is no risk to human health as a result of this case.
"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," said Scotland's agriculture minister Jim Fairlie. He added that the owner's swift action allowed authorities to "identify and isolate the case immediately, minimising its impact on the wider industry."
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) is investigating the origin of the disease. Under Scotland's surveillance system, all animals over four years of age that die on farms are routinely tested for BSE.
While BSE is not directly transmitted from animal to animal, the affected cow's offspring and cohort have been traced, isolated, and will be destroyed in accordance with legal requirements.
BSE was the subject of a significant public health crisis in the UK during the 1990s. The epidemic peaked between 1992 and 1993, with up to 100,000 confirmed cases and nearly 1,000 new cases reported weekly. At that time, more than 4.4 million cattle were culled in the UK to curb the spread of the disease, which was believed to have been caused by contaminated meat and bone meal fed to cattle.