AR-News: (UK) New cattle disease found in Britain

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New cattle disease found in Britain
>From correspondents in London

08jun04

BRITISH scientists have detected a previously unknown brain condition that caused paralysis and death in a young cow, officials said today.

The discovery is a new blow to an industry already badly hit by mad cow disease.

An investigation had been launched after a white material was found on the brain of a heifer which died after suffering paralysis for around five or six days, Britain's Department for Environment and Rural Affairs said.

The animals had been tested for known bovine diseases but none had been detected, a spokesman said.

"The Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA) have recorded possibly a new condition in cattle in the UK," he said. 

"In layman's terms, a type of cattle polio was identified which we haven't seen before."

A series of diseases have already been ruled out, including louping-ill, a virus transmitted by ticks which causes inflammation of the brain and spinal cord.

Tests for West Nile disease, a virus spread by mosquitoes which has never been seen in Britain, and for bovine herpes 1 also came up negative.

It was too soon to say whether there was any potential risk to humans, the ministry spokesman said.

"The long-term risk to public health is not known. It is impossible to make an assessment from a single case where the agent responsible is not known."

Britain's beef industry has been severely hit since cases of the human form of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), were first detected in 1996.

Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or vCJD, which causes a spongy deterioration of the brain, has killed at least 141 Britons and led to wholesale bans on British beef being exported.

These have been relaxed as the scare receded; although government-funded research published last month warned that around 3,800 Britons could still be harbouring vCJD without knowing it.