Bovine spongiform encephalopathy and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease risk management in Nordic countries

The prevalence of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Nordic countries is low. To date, there have been 14 BSE cases in domestic cattle in Denmark, three cases in Danish cattle exported to other countries, one case in Finland, one in Sweden, and no cases in Norway. As of April 2008, no cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) have been identified. All Nordic countries had stopped imports of live cattle from the UK by 1990, implemented ruminant MBM bans in 1990-1991, and introduced active surveillance in 2000-2001. Although the implementation of other risk management interventions varied, all Nordic countries were assessed as having stable systems for mitigating BSE by 2001.

Keywords: bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, vCJD, Nordic countries, risk management, mad cow disease, variant CJD, food safety, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway