Farmers in some countries have complained authorities have been slow to get testing started because of a lack of suitable equipment, creating beef supply bottlenecks.
Many scientists believe the illness can be passed on to humans via infected beef.
Bse Tests Negative Italy's Health Ministry said this week that some 1,700 tests of cattle for mad cow disease had been carried out so far, and all were negative. Two confirmed cases of BSE were detected in Italy in 1994, involving British cattle imported to Sicily. Both animals were destroyed. Aguzzi said that the presence of the disease in cattle could only be detected late in the incubation period. Researchers were now scrambling to improve the efficiency of tests.