First case of BSE in Israel confirmed

Israel confirmed on Tuesday its first case of mad cow disease, found in a cow in a kibbutz in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, but officials said they were confident no infected meat had reached the market.

Oded Nir, the director of the Agriculture Ministry's veterinary services department, told Reuters the Israeli-born animal bred in Kibbutz Ortal was "probably infected by poultry fish meal imported from Europe"​.

An Israeli Agriculture Ministry statement said a brain biopsy performed on the 10-year-old cow by the World Organisation for Animal Health in Switzerland showed bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease.

Nir said they evaluated the risk of the disease spreading throughout the country, and especially in the meat market, and determined there was little chance it would happen.

"Based on the surveillance we have been doing since 1996, we are pretty sure that if we had cases, they would be very few, maybe two or three per million. That's why we don't think there is a danger in the meat that exists in the market,"​ he said.

Nir also said there was no danger to the milk industry, because mad cow disease is not transmitted through milk.

A spokeswoman for the Agriculture Ministry said there was no fear other cows were affected or of the disease spreading and that tests for it have been continuously conducted on cattle since Britain's mad cow disease epidemic in 1996.

"We are not worried at all,"​ she said. "Since 1996 we have examined every cow. We are looking for the disease, it's not like we just discovered it (by accident). From now on the future is covered."​

The ministry said it would launch an emergency plan to examine brains of all cattle over the age of 30 months that are sent to slaughterhouses before releasing their meat to the market.

In addition, the internal organs of slaughtered cattle over the age of one year would be destroyed. The ministry said three cows of the same age group of the infected animal and two of its offspring, now in quarantine, would be culled.

BSE is a nervous system disorder caused by a protein that destroys brain cells. Affected cows show symptoms of nervousness, confusion and poor co-ordination. It is believed to be transmitted to humans when they eat the infected beef.

A human form of the disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, was first diagnosed in 1996 in Britain. Since then, more than 100 people have died from it.

Nir said 70 per cent of Israeli cattle are imported. Beef is usually imported from South America - mainly Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Live cattle are usually brought in from Australia.

Two months ago, Israel stopped importing cattle from Poland, which declared its first case of mad cow disease on 4 May.