BSE, or 'mad cow disease', found in dead cow in Wales

A case of "mad cow disease", or BSE, has been indentified in a dead cow on a farm in Wales, the Welsh government has said.

It did not enter the human food chain and authorities say there is no danger to human health.

The disease, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), is a deadly degenerative brain disorder.

There have been no previous incidences of BSE in the UK this year, according to the World Organisation for Animal Health.

In a statement, Rebecca Evans, the Welsh Assembly's Deputy Minister for Farming and Food said the dead cow's companions and offspring had been traced and would be destroyed in line with EU rules.

She added: "Identification of this case demonstrates that the controls we have in place are working well."

Only one case of the disease in animals was confirmed in last year. Three cases were documented in 2013.

Due to its long incubation period – lasting anywhere from two to eight years – isolating and tracking the disease, medically referred to as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the animals and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, has proved difficult.