The Welsh Government has announced that a case of BSE has been detected in a cow in Wales.

The disease was identified during routine testing on an older cow that died on a farm. The exact location has not been revealed, but the infected cow’s offspring and cohorts have been isolated and will be destroyed in line with EU regulations.

The Welsh Government and Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) issued a statement on the detection of BSE on Thursday. Though cases of the disease, which was at the centre of public panic and a trade war in the 1990s, are still found relatively infrequently in the UK, this is the first case in Wales since 2013.

Wales’ Deputy Minister for Farming and Food Rebecca Evans said in a statement that “The case was identified as a result of the strict control measures we have in place.

“It did not enter the human food chain and the Food Standards Agency and Public Health Wales have confirmed there is no risk to human health as a result of this isolated case.”

Evans said Welsh government officials are working closely with colleagues from APHA and Defra to investigate the circumstances surrounding the case.

All animals over four years of age that die on a farm are routinely tested for the disease under the disease surveillance system. Rebecca Evans said that measures in place to protect the public include the removal of ‘specified risk material’ such as the spinal column, brain and skull from cattle carcasses. Though the infectious agent that can transmit BSE - or its human variant CJD - is found in virtually all body tissue, these are most common in nervous tissue.

Evans said that the identification of the Welsh case demonstrates that the controls the government has in place are working well.