What is the incidence of BSE by Member State?
Currently, the overall BSE incidence in the Community is falling, mainly as a result of the decline in BSE cases as observed in the UK. In Great Britain the incidence has fallen sharply from over 36.000 cases in 1992 at the peak of the epidemic to 1348 in 2000. The BSE incidence trend is stable in Portugal, where 159 cases were recorded in 1999 compared to 150 cases in 2000. The number of detected BSE cases has on the other hand shown an increase in other Member States, such as France (31 cases in 1999, 162 in 2000) and in Ireland (95 cases in 1999, 149 in 2000) as a result of reinforced surveillance programmes. The introduction of active surveillance in Germany, Spain and Italy in December 2000 also led to the discovery of the first ever ‘native’ BSE cases in those Member States.
