Goat had 'Mad Cow Disease'

The European Union has announced the first case of the brain-wasting BSE disease in a goat but said the risk to consumers was minimal.

The European Food Safety Authority said that a goat slaughtered in France in 2002 was infected with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, the brain wasting disease known as Mad Cow.

“I am proposing to extend testing further to determine whether this is an isolated incident,” said EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou.

The EU Commission wants to test 200,000 goats in the 25 EU member states over the next six months.

The testing program would concentrate on countries where cases of BSE have been reported in cattle in the past.

EU governments will vote on the BSE plan for goats at a meeting next Wednesday and Thursday.

The EU head office downplayed the potential threat to consumer health, saying that precautionary measures already have been in place for several years and that the rate of incidences are very low.

“I want to reassure consumers that existing safety measures in the EU offer a very high level of protection,” said Kyprianou.