French goat had 'mad cow'
2005-01-28 22:23
Paris - A goat slaughtered in France in 2002 has tested positive for "mad cow" disease, French and EU officials said Friday, announcing the first case in the world of an animal other than a bovine coming down with the fatal illness that can be transmitted to humans.
The discovery of the disease - known scientifically as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cows - is a disturbing sign that it can cross over to other species used for human consumption.
The presence of BSE in other animals had been viewed as theoretically possible but has never previously been detected.
BSE has been linked to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), the human form of mad cow disease, which causes brain-wasting, personality change, loss of body function, and ultimately death.
The French agriculture ministry said the new case was confirmed by a panel of scientists appointed by the European Commission.
It stressed that the Commission was not yet recommending consumers avoid buying products with goat meat but was advising EU states to step up checks for any other goats showing BSE symptoms, such as trembling and lacking coordination.
British health authorities said in October last year that British scientists in a laboratory in Weybridge, England, were testing brain tissue from the goat.
The goat in question was slaughtered in an abbatoir in Ales, in southern France in 2002 but was kept out of the food chain. The 300 other goats in its herd were destroyed as a precaution even though testing revealed no trace of BSE in any of them.
There are 1.2 million goats raised in France, of which 940 000 are used to produce milk for dairy products.
BSE first appeared in cows on a farm in West Sussex, south England in 1986. The disease has an incubation period of around five years.