First Case of Mad Cow Disease Hits Greece

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Monday July 2 9:10 AM ET First Case of Mad Cow Disease Hits Greece

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece said on Monday it had confirmed its first case of mad cow disease and was already destroying cattle from the same herd.

Agriculture Minister George Anomeritis told a news conference the diseased cow had been detected at a slaughterhouse in the northern Greek city of Serres where out of 34 brain samples one tested positively.

It was the furthest east in Europe that a confirmed case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE (news - web sites)), linked to the human brain-wasting Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (news - web sites), had been found.

Anomeritis said the five-year old dairy cow came from a farm in the northern Greek area of Kilkis and that the whole herd of about 150 cattle had now been destroyed.

The minister said the cow had not shown any symptoms but had been identified during regular testing, increasingly strict after January when new European Union (news - web sites) rules applied.

After an initial positive test, a sample was sent for additional testing and came back positive again, he said.

In mid-June cattle were identified with BSE in the Czech Republic, the first time the disease had shown up in eastern Europe.

The announcement of a Greek case comes as EU officials have reported an upturn in beef consumption following a plunge after BSE showed up on the European continent.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010702/wl/madcow_greece_dc_1.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), July 02, 2001


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