MINISTER OF Agriculture, Roger Clarke has ordered the veterinary division to immediately investigate reports of the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), popularly referred to as 'mad cow disease', being detected in a goat in France.
The Minister said on Friday the investigation was important in health protection and in order to, "deal effectively with the monitoring of all the meats that come into our country."
Reports surfaced last week that scientists had detected the disease in a slaughtered goat in France. This is the first time that the disease, which affects the brain of animals and humans, has been detected in a goat.
Jamaica does not import goat meat from Europe, and "did not have anything to fear at this time," Mr. Clarke said. But the agricultural authorities will monitor the situation, "because this is a strange occurrence where a disease which really was supposed to be confined to a particular animal is now being found in another one," he said
Scientists had thought initially that the animal, which was born in 2000, had scrapie, a disease from the same family as BSE.
The European Commission (EU) maintained that there was little risk of humans becoming infected with the disease due to what it said were strict food hygiene and animal feed rules.
