Update of BSE in French Goat case

The February 2005 Dairy Goat Digest featured an article about a case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in a French goat. This was the first confirmed case of BSE in a species other than cattle. The consumption of brain or spinal cord tissue from cattle infected with BSE (known as mad cow disease) has been linked to variant Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease (vCJD) in humans. Approximately 140 people are known to have died of vCJD in Britain.

In July 2005 a panel of European scientific advisors concluded that the likely prevalence of BSE in the European Union goat population is very low and that the current risk is considered to be small for goats born after a European wide ban on feed containing meat and bone meal (MBM) was introduced in 2001. MBM is thought to have been the most likely route of BSE infection to cattle.
Earlier this year the panel also advised on the safety of milk and milk products and concluded that based on current scientific knowledge, milk and milk products from goats are unlikely to present any risk contamination provided the milk is sourced from healthy animals. The scientific panel based its assessment on the following points:

• The European Commission and Member States have so far carried out over 93,000 tests on goats since the first case was identified and none has been found positive for BSE
• BSE has been found in only one goat (in France) and none of the other goats in that herd had the disease
• This goat was born before the 2001 European feed ban on MBM. MBM is thought to be the most likely route of BSE infection to cattle. Since the 2001 ban very few goats, if any, would have had access to MBM.

Currently there is another suspected case of BSE in a UK goat born before a feed ban was introduced in that country in 1988. The suspect goat was slaughtered in 1990 and is undergoing additional laboratory tests for BSE. Results will be completed in two years. Should another case of BSE in a goat be confirmed, the European Food Safety Authority may have to re-examine its risk assessment for BSE in goats.