001007 Britain Says Mad Cow Disease In DeclineOctober 2, 2000London - A new report on mad cow disease shows the epidemic is in decline, Britain's Agriculture Ministry said, a day after officials played down a report of eight possible new cases. The ministry's latest progress report on bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), due to be published in full on its website at www.maff.gov.uk, said 62.6% of UK herds with adult breeding cattle had never been hit by BSE, including 84% of beef suckler herds. Herds with more than four cases of BSE accounted for 74.6% of all BSE cases, but represented only 11.9% of all herds. “The latest BSE Progress Report shows that the epidemic of BSE in the UK continues to decline in line with predictions,” it said in a statement. The ministry earlier played down a report in the Sunday Times newspaper of eight possible new cases of the disease in cows born since the introduction of measures in 1996 to prevent any more cases. The paper said the cases might have resulted from a failure to ban cows' blood from use in cattle feed. But the ministry said only one new case had been confirmed since measures were taken to prevent its spread, and that farmers did not use cows' blood in feed. The confirmed case animal was born in August 1996, several months after regulations took effect that banned feed makers from using cow meat and bone meal--which are thought to spread BSE--in cow food. Mad cow disease first broke out in British herds in 1986 and peaked in 1992. Four years later scientists identified new variant CJD (vCJD), the human form of BSE, and suggested it could be contracted by eating contaminated beef. About 70 people have died in Britain from vCJD, which destroys the brain. It is not known how long the disease incubates in its victims, so scientists say it is too early to estimate how many people will eventually die of it.
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