Mad cow disease case confirmed on Essex farm

A case of mad cow disease was confirmed in Essex. The government said the infected cow was humanely put down, and there was no risk to public health or food safety. Mad cow disease, or Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is an atypical and non-contagious disease in cows that is different from “classical” BSE, which is linked to contaminated feed. The first two cases of “classical” BSE were detected in cows in the UK in the mid-1980s. Soon the country became the epicentre of a massive outbreak, with over 180,000 animals lost to the disease between 1986 and 2015. Other four million were culled to contain the outbreak. Cases peaked in 1993 and then decreased substantially thanks to several control measures, including a ban on using meat from around the animals’ spinal columns. Commenting on the case in Essex, Dr James Cooper, deputy director of food policy at the Food Standards Agency, reassured the public that there is no food safety risk and that strict control and surveillance measures protect consumers from the risk of BSE.