PARIS, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- With memories of a mad cow panic still fresh in Europe, officials in Brussels and Paris announced Friday the apparent discovery of the world's first "mad goat" from the Ardeche region in France.
A statement on the French Agriculture Ministry's Web site said the suspect goat was among a flock of 300 animals from southeastern France. The entire flock was slaughtered in 2002 the ministry said, and their carcasses destroyed.
The goat was initially suspected of having scrapie, a condition similar to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.
But last October, French authorities raised the possibility the animal in fact had mad cow disease, the statement said.
Scientists tapped by the European Union confirmed those suspicions, with the goat testing positively for the disease, the Agriculture Ministry said.
"It is the only case of ESB identified to date" out of 140,000 suspect goat brains studied across Europe, including 60,000 in France, the statement said.
Nonetheless, the goat case raises fresh fears in Europe, which was rocked by a series of mad cow outbreaks in Britain and across the continent.
In recent years, governments slaughtered hundreds of herds, and banned beef imports coming from mad cow-stricken countries.
The European Union also banned the use of feed made with animal bone and other tissue. And in mad cow-affected countries such as France and Britain, governments forbid the consumption of such delicacies as brain and sweet breads.
Scientists believe that in scattered cases, humans eating infected meat can contract the human form of mad cow, a rare disease that causes death.
In Britain alone, more than 100 people have died from the human variant, known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, after eating tainted beef.
But more recently, researchers have taken pains to calm jittery consumers, saying that existing precautions mean that beef is now safe to eat in Europe.
Those jitters may rise again when it comes to goats -- and more particularly goat cheese, a popular delicacy in France, where dozens of tangy varieties exist.
In a clear effort to cool concerns, the Agriculture Ministry noted in its statement that French officials had stepped up screening of goats headed for slaughter since December.
And in a pre-prepared Q&A on its Web site, the ministry said that scientists have found no evidence to date that the disease could be transmitted from an infected goat into goats milk or cheese.
In Brussels, too, the European Commission said that with existing European safety measures, there was no need to be alarmed over the new mad goat finding in France, the BBC reported.
Nonetheless, the EC announced it would test 200,000 goats in the 25-member EU over the next six months, according to the BBC.
