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Ranchers.net

New case of madcow disease confirmed in Azores

Time is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 3-Aug-2006 04:30 hrs

Cows are seen in a truck during transport. A new case of mad cow disease has been confirmed in Portugal's Azores islands, the sixth known incidence of the disease there since November 2000, the regional government said.



A new case of mad cow disease has been confirmed in Portugal's Azores islands, the sixth known incidence of the disease there since November 2000, the regional government said.
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The presence of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) -- known as mad cow disease -- was detected in screening tests and confirmed by the national veterinary laboratory, the regional office for agriculture and forests said in a statement.
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The cow on the island of Pico, part of the nine-island archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, was a 15-year-old Holstein-Frisian, whose carcass was immediately destroyed in accordance with safety procedures, the statement added.
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The Azores government also said it had ordered the slaughter of other animals in contact with the infected cow.
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In humans, a variant form of a disease similar to BSE called Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (CJD) is believed to be caused by eating contaminated beef products from BSE-affected cattle.
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The first case of mad cow disease was discovered in the Azores in 2000 in a cow imported from Germany.
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The head of the Azores agriculture federation, Vergilio Oliveira, said that the detection of the latest case of mad cow disease proved the effectiveness of the islands' screening system. — AFP


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