Italy confirms first BSE case

The Italian authorities have confirmed the country's first case of BSE or mad cow disease since 1994.

All cattle at the farm where it was bred are now expected to be slaughtered.

The infected animal was found at an abattoir that supplies meat to wholesale butchers and a number of restaurants -- including McDonalds -- and a BBC correspondent in Rome says the case has already led to a fifteen percent drop in the price of beef.

Reports from Austria meanwhile indicate that reports of the first BSE case in the country may have been unfounded.

The authorities say further tests on a suspected case have shown the animal did not carry the disease.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service