A continuing decline in the observed cases of BSE is reported in official tables. The following figures are given for the period to Mid April 2000. 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.
Whether these cases occurred because the ban was insufficiently enforced, or because maternal transmission is perpetuating the disease or because there are other agents which are not yet controlled is not known. The number of cats showing spongiform encephalopathies has fallen since the introduction of a ban on the use of specified cattle offal in pet food in 1990, although several cases are in animals that were born after the ban, implying that the ban may not have been fully effective. Scrapie Data on scrapie in sheep and goats have been collected since the disease became notifiable 1993. Not all cases were confirmed until compulsory slaughter legislation was introduced in 1998. Interpretation of trends may therefore be unreliable.