BSE: Scientists publish risk assessments for Costa Rica, Kenya, Slovenia and Romania

On the 16 May 2001 the Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) advising the European Commission on BSE related issues published its opinion on the Geographical Risk of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (GBR) in Costa Rica, Kenya, Slovenia and Romania.

The evaluation of the geographical risk of presence of BSE focused on the risk for animals to incubate the disease. The Committee concluded that it was highly unlikely that cattle infected with the BSE agent were present in domestic herds of Costa Rica (GBR level I). They found that this was unlikely but not excluded in the herds of Kenya and Slovenia (GBR level II) and that it was likely that BSE was present in the cattle herds of Romania (GBR level III) although this was not yet confirmed. Slovenia is the first accession country that is classified as GBR level II. All other accession countries so far evaluated had been classified at level III of Geographical BSE Risk. Similarly, all EU Member States were classified at level III except for Sweden, Finland and Austria (level II).