A continuing decline in the observed cases of BSE is reported in official tables. The dates refer to the year when the animal was first suspected of harbouring the disease, and the figures are for animals finally confirmed as having the disease.
Recent figures are still provisional.
To date, Britain has seen some 177,490 cases of BSE affecting over 35,000 farms. Some 96 per cent of the BSE cases now being reported are in animals born after the original ruminant protein ban of 1988, which had been introduced to prevent the further spread of the disease. Whether these cases occurred because the bans have been insufficiently enforced, or because maternal transmission is perpetuating the disease or because there are other agents which are not yet controlled, is not known. Not all cases were confirmed until compulsory slaughter legislation was introduced in 1998. Interpretation of trends may therefore be unreliable.