Tests confirm presence of mad cow disease in Romanian beef

Romania’s animal health and safety authority (ANSVSA) said on Wednesday that the Romanian meat sent to for testing at a British laboratory was confirmed to be infected with an “atypical form of BSE which appears naturally and spontaneously in cattle.”

“This is an isolated case”, ANSVSA mentioned.

On Tuesday, Russia’s federal veterinary and phytosanitary control authority, or Rosselkhoznadzor, banned imports of bovine cattle, beef and by-products from Romania over an outbreak of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

Prime minister Victor Ponta reacted to the Russian move by saying that Romania does not have a “mad cow problem” according to Europe and “maybe the Russian authorities are mistaken”.

“The president of ANSVSA informed us that Romania followed European procedures which are very strict and, knowing that, everybody in Europe says that Romania doesn’t have any problems. If only Russia says we have a problem, maybe the ones that are wrong are Russian authorities”, Ponta said.

The Cluj prefect, Ioan Gheorghe Vuscan, said on Wednesday that there are suspicions the infected animal came from a farmer in Deusu, a village in the county, and it could’ve been sacrificed in an abattoir in Bistrita Nasaud.

“There is information that indicates the origin of this animal could be Deusu village, Chinteni commune, in the Cluj county, from a farmer there, but this hasn’t been confirmed yet. We also suspect it came from Salaj. We can’t clearly identify where this animal came from”, according to the official, quoted by Mediafax.

BSE is fatal to cows and can cause a fatal brain disease in people who eat tainted beef. It first broke out in the late 1980s in Britain, where hundreds of people fell ill and many died after eating contaminated meat. Over the years, 4.5 million cattle were slaughtered to contain the spread.

Romania exports up to one million cattle a year, mainly to the Netherlands, Italy, and Croatia.