Suspected BSE case scrapped

A probable case of BSE showed negative results on Sunday

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Further testing on a cow believed to possess mad cow disease indicate that the health scare may be a false alarm, the agricultural minister said on Sunday.

After the test was carried out, Margareta Winberg said: "Today's negative test result confirms that this was probably a false alarm."

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), moved through British herds in the 1980s and now is appearing in other European cattle.

A human form, called new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), has killed more than 80 people in Britain and two in France.

Late on Friday, the Agriculture Ministry said it may have found a case of BSE in Sweden, until now thought to have been free of the illness and therefore enjoying a more relaxed testing regime than other European Union countries.

But the ministry had also said the suspected 2.5 year-old cow was too young to have developed the disease, and that preliminary routine tests done on the animal may have given a false reading.

The Sunday test is still to be confirmed by a specialist British laboratory in about two weeks.

Despite its negative result, Winberg said the authorities would continue to withdraw from shops beef from the farm where the suspect animal lived, and the farm itself would continue to be isolated with no animals entering or leaving it.

The Sunday test comes as a relief for Winberg, who on Monday will chair a meeting of European Union agriculture ministers in Brussels to discuss how to revive the bloc's beef market, which has been plunged into chaos over the disease.

In response to the falling demand and beef prices the European Commission is proposing to cut production, but Sweden argues its beef output is smaller than domestic demand and therefore wants to be excluded from the production cuts.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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