MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Sweden's first case of mad cow

Sweden's first case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, mad cow disease, has been confirmed by the European Union's central laboratory and in the Netherlands an 8 year old cow was also diagnosed with BSE.

Sweden reported the case last week after tests showed symptoms of the illness in a domestic cow. The tests from a 12-year-old cow in central Sweden were sent to the central EU lab in Weybridge, England, which confirmed the disease, the European Commission said.

The EC indicated it will reconsider the Swedish exemption for automatic disease tests. Since Sweden had never reported a case of mad cow disease - or bovine spongiform encephalopathy - it is not required to test every cow slaughtered for food consumption.

"The likelihood is that we will have to reintegrate Sweden into the European (testing) regime," said health and consumer affairs spokesman Philip Tod.

EU Health and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Markos Kyprianou, will review Sweden's exemption in the coming days, Tod added. In the meantime, "an investigation into the possible source of the case is ongoing," Tod said.

In Holland Dutch Ministry of Agriculture announced the disease was detected in a farm in the town of Dinkelland in Overijssel province after tests were conducted on a cow already slaughtered.

Mad cow was detected in other cows at the same farm as well. This is the second case in the Netherlands this year, making the total number of mad cow diseases 82 since 1997.