Second Czech BSE case confirmed

The announcement is a set back for the country's meat industry which had hoped to turn a corner after five years of fighting the disease. With the number of cases having rapidly declined over the last year, there had been hope amongst officials that the alert would turn out to be negative. "We do not expect the confirmation tests to give another result," Josef Duben, spokesman for the State Veterinary Administration, told the (B)AFP(/B) news agency, earlier in the week. After analyzing samples form the farm however, officials confirmed that a cow had indeed tested positive for the disease, which has threatened beef production in the country for almost half a decade. To prevent any further spread in the region, 200 cows were culled as a precautionary measure. The case marks 25th discovery of the disease since it was first identified in the country in 2001, and will concern the wider industry who hoped that the disease was being eradicated in the country through increased surveillance. Since 2001, obligatory screening has been carried out on the brains of slaughtered animals over the age of 30 months. This measure, along with other enhanced forms of testing has seen a marked decline in the number of outbreaks. Last year eight cases of the disease had been reported, a figure which this year to date has been reduced to just two identifiable outbreaks.

Second Czech BSE case confirmed

Beef production in the Czech Republic took a blow this week, after a new case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was confirmed in a herd within the country - the second outbreak of its kind this year.

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