Czech cattle breeders, meat processors and veterinarians' worst nightmare came true last week when the first case of mad cow disease (BSE) was found in the Czech Republic.

Agriculture Minister Jan Fencl announced that original suspicions had been confirmed by further tests. However, the Czechs have asked a German laboratory to reconfirm the results, which are due to be made available this week.

Hungary and Slovakia did not wait for further checks — Bratislava immediately announced a ban on Czech beef imports and the transport of cattle across its territory. Budapest said no import licenses would be granted for Czech beef with immediate effect.  The development means the Czech Republic becomes the first country outside the EU (except for Switzerland) with an official presence of the disease.

Veterinarians detected the case in a Jihlava-based meat producer Kostelecke Uzeniny in South Moravia. The milk cow with BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) was bred on the farming cooperative at Dusejov, 120 km southeast of Prague.

Germany has been asked to verify the Czech tests because it has much more experience of BSE. The suspicious sample comes from a cow age 5 years and eight months. It is from a herd of 400 cattle, including 371 milk cows and 18 pregnant cows.

For the first time, the State Veterinary Administration (SVS) took the measure of banning the transport of animals from the farm and is preparing for further measures to be taken.  The SVS will now start checking all slaughtered animals older than 30 months, or a total of 170,000 animals. The Czech Republic has so far examined 10,656 samples of cattle brains with a negative result. "The checking of all slaughtered animals older than 30 months would cost Kc 280 million annually," said SVS spokesman Josef Duben.