Second suspected BSE case in Italy


Results of the Italian tests are expected within a few days

ROME, Italy -- A second suspected case of mad cow disease has been found in Italy amid predictions by scientists that it is "natural" for more cases to be found.

The suspected case, found in a four-year-old animal from a breeding farm near Verona, in northern Italy, is the second in less than two weeks.

It comes at the same time Austria is expected to shortly reveal the results of tests on pork sausages labelled "beef free" but found to contain beef.

One third of the apparent "beef free" pork sausages examined in the western Tyrol province contained beef.

Austria's federal office of food analysis said final results were expected this week at which point stores would be told to remove the sausages from supermarket shelves because of concerns over possible bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) contamination.

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The Italian outbreak of the brain wasting ailment, believed by scientists to be linked to the human form Creuztfeldt-Jakob disease, has caused panic among butchers, farmers and consumers.

Butchers are pressing their government for help in covering the financial losses, as sales plummet.

Maria Caramelli, a scientist at the national centre in Turin for analysing the disease, said: "If we have found two cases after a few weeks of work ...it is only natural we expect to find more cases, told ANSA news agency.

Final results of the tests are expected within a few days.

'No psychosis'

But Health Minister Umberto Veronesi, a physician, insisted that Italy's domestic beef supply is safe, adding that there was no need for Italians to develop a "psychosis" from mad cow fears.

French scientists said its new rapid test for BSE had proved effective and should help ensure that infected animals do not enter the food chain.

Jean-Philippe Deslys, of the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) said: "By eliminating all the cows found positive (with BSE) theoretically this test can guarantee the elimination of all the animals dangerous for humans."

The two-step biochemical test, which gives results in five hours, is manufactured by U.S. medical products company Bio-Rad Life Sciences Laboratories.

But Deslys' findings, printed in the journal Nature, have been questioned in another magazine, the New Scientist.

It said the results of the study were confusing because veterinary authorities across the European Union have found the test throws up false positive results.

The latest BSE scare comes as European ministers consider compulsory testing for mad cow disease among young cattle and a possible curb on the sale of T-bone steaks.

EU Food Safety Commissioner David Byrne told the European Parliament's agricultural committee presented a crisis across Europe.

The EU has already recently imposed a universal testing scheme on animals older than 30 months destined for the food chain as well as a six-month ban on meat-based livestock feed.

But Byrne said the measures were "the very minimum necessary to begin the process of re-building consumer confidence in beef."

Europe's Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler also told the committee that the EU executive had to use the next six months to examine if it was feasible to make the ban on meat-based feed permanent.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.