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Scottish farmer says he's 'heartbroken' after mad cow disease found in his herd

The case was found on a farm in Aberdeenshire - PA
The case was found on a farm in Aberdeenshire - PA

A Scottish farmer has spoken of his "heartbreak" after mad cow disease was found in his herd in Aberdeenshire. Thomas Jackson issued a statement saying he and his wife had spent years building up the herd and had taken “great pride in doing all the correct things”.

The first case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in Scotland for a decade was discovered on Boghead Farm, Lumsden, in the north east of the country.

Mr Jackson, speaking through NFU Scotland, said: “This has been a very difficult time for myself and my wife and we have found the situation personally devastating.

“We have built up our closed herd over many years and have always taken great pride in doing all the correct things. To find through the surveillance system in place that one of our cows has BSE has been heartbreaking.

“Since this has happened we have been fully cooperating with all the parties involved and will continue to do so as we like everyone want to move forward and clear up this matter.”

He added that the cohorts and offspring of the cow had been identified and a precautionary measure would be slaughtered and tested.

bse - Credit: PA
The farmer said he and his wife were devastated by the discovery Credit: PA

Mr Jackson released the statement as the country’s chief vet assured the public there was “no need to panic”.

Sheila Voas said up to four other animals on the farm were being slaughtered on the farm, where the disease was found through routine testing.

But she added that while the disease could be transmitted, it was most likely it had occurred spontaneously in the affected animal.

A movement ban has been put in place at the farm as investigators try to establish the source of the fatal disease, and Ms Voas said it could be several months before investigators could say for certain.

She told the BBC Scotland's Good Morning Scotland radio programme: “The animal itself is dead, she died before she was tested, and there are three other animals, or possibly four, that will need to be slaughtered purely from a precautionary basis.

"All the information we have is this is under control, there's no reason for people to panic. It's not the start of an outbreak, it's a single isolated case that won't affect the food chain."

Ms Voas said brain stem samples would be taken from the other animals and they would also tested for BSE.

Officials have stressed the case poses no risk to human health and that its discovery proves the surveillance system in place is working effectively.

Fergus Ewing, the Rural Economy Minister, said the case was further proof that the surveillance system for detecting the type of disease was working.

Millions of cattle were culled in the UK in the 1990s during a BSE epidemic.

It can be passed on to humans in the food chain, causing a fatal condition called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD).

Strict controls were introduced to protect consumers after the link was established in 1996.

The disease has been reduced to a handful of cases each year in the UK, with the last recorded case in Wales in 2015. Scotland had been BSE free since 2009.