Two die in Spain from 'mad cow disease'

Two people have died in Spain from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, the human form of mad cow disease, the health department of the regional Castilla-Leon government said yesterday.

The Carlos III Institute, which specialises in epidemics, said it had logged three deaths from vCJD since 2005, including those announced in Castilla-Leon.

A health department spokesman from the northern region said one person had died of vCJD 15 to 20 days ago, and one in late December or early January. Juan Jose Badiola, the director for Spain's National Reference Centre for Transmitted Spongiform Encephalopathy, said there was no cause for alarm.

"It is most likely that both victims contracted the disease more than eight years ago," Mr Badiola said in a report by Europa Press.

The European Union in January 2001 banned the use of animal and bone meal in animal feed in order to prevent the spread of mad cow disease and vCJD.

The National Health Service in Britain, where several deaths from vCJD have been reported, says on its website that similar infections take between 15 and 20 years to become active.

Mad cow disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, first emerged in Britain in the 1980s and has been found in herds in several European and other countries. Scientists believe it is transmitted through infected meat and bone meal fed to cattle and may cause vCJD in humans.