2023 BSE Report: EU Reports 5 Cases, UK 1 Case

On November 28, 2024, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) released its annual summary report on Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSE) for 2023.

The report details the monitoring of TSE in cattle, sheep, goats, deer, and other species across 27 member states (MS, EU27), the UK, and eight non-EU countries (including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland, and Turkey) during 2023, as well as the genotyping results for sheep and goats.

The report states that in the current year, a total of 948,165 cattle were tested across the EU27 and 11 participating countries (a 3% increase compared to 2022), with five atypical BSE cases reported (four H-type: two in Spain, one in France, one in Ireland; one L-type in the Netherlands); among 46,096 cattle in the eight non-EU participating countries, Switzerland reported two atypical BSE cases. The UK (1 case), the U.S. (1 case), and Brazil (1 case) reported an additional three atypical BSE cases.

Furthermore, 284,686 sheep and 102,646 goats were tested in the EU27 and 11 participating countries (increasing by 3.5% and 5.9% compared to 2022, respectively). In non-EU participating countries, 26,047 sheep and 589 goats were tested. Among sheep, 14 member states reported 538 cases of scrapie: four member states reported 462 cases of classical scrapie (CS) (of which 104 were index cases (IC), with 93.4% of cases having susceptible genotypes), and 12 member states reported 76 cases of atypical scrapie (AS) (76 were IC). In non-EU participating countries, Iceland reported 70 cases of CS, and Norway reported 7 cases of sheep scrapie. Six member states reported random genotyping of sheep, with susceptible group genotyping accounting for 6.9%.

In goats, there were 183 reported cases of scrapie, all from EU member states: 176 cases of CS (47 were IC) from seven member states and 7 cases of AS (7 were IC) from five member states, with three goats carrying codons 146 and 222 heterozygous alleles reported in Cyprus and Spain. A total of 2,096 males were tested for chronic wasting disease across ten member states, all with negative results. Norway tested 14,224 reindeer and found one positive case of European elk.