Officials desperate to seek source of first confirmed case of BSE infected cow

The first confirmed case of BSE has been reported in Poland in a slaug hterhouse in the Malopolska region. It has not been yet been discovered where the cow contracted the disease and the police, together with the veterinary inspectors, are conducting an investigation to see which herd and area it came from so they can destroy the right herd and root out possible sources. Prions which cause BSE, also pose a risk to humans, who may c ontract variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (CJD). Veterinary services assure, however, that there is nothing to worry about as the case was intercepted before it entered the market. '"This is not an epidemic, 100,000 animals have been investigated and only one case has been confirmed with BSE," said Tadeusz Wijaszka, the director of the Veterinary Institute in Pulawy. (Zycie, p. 1, 3) K.S.