First mad cat disease in Switzerland

A six-year old Swiss cat was found suffering from an illness related to mad cow disease, probably from eating infected cat food, the Swiss veterinary office said on Tuesday. Swiss authorities said it is the first case in Switzerland but in Britain 90 cases are known, with the first registered in 1990.In Norway a cat was found suffering from the disease in 1995 and Liechtenstein had one case in 1996, they said. The authorities added that in various countries several big cats in zoos, like puma, tiger and lion, have also been diagnosed with the illness called feline spongiform encephalopathy (FSE).They said the disease could not spread from cats to humans and noted that no cases had been detected in dogs. While the exact cause of FSE is unknown, the Swiss authorities assume the cat was infected by eating food containing animal brain tissue or bone marrow that was raw or insufficiently heated.The cat was put down because it was suffering from severe disorders of its central nervous system. The FSE case was diagnosed at the animal neurology centre of the University of Berne.