After recording its first two cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the northwestern region of Galicia, Spain is to revamp its outdated national zoonosis surveillance program. The country joins a growing number of others in Europe that is confronting BSE as a potential public health threat (Nature Med. 6, 1301; 2000).

Until last month, samples of cattle brain have been sent to the UK for immunohistochemical analysis, but following public complaints from leading veterinarian Juan Badiola of the University of Zaragoza that government laboratory resources are inadequate, the Spanish cabinet has approved a special budget of Ptas 2.42 billion (US $13 million) to purchase 546,000 western-blot kits made by the Swiss-based company, Prionics, that can detect prions in brain and spinal cord tissue within hours. The government plans to extend analysis to around 350,000 animals.

Other measures include updating laboratories at slaughterhouses and training personnel to carry out testing at a cost of Ptas 3.5 million per lab, corpse retrieval costing Ptas 9 billion and removal and destruction of bovine specific risk materials (SRM) at a cost of Ptas 3.5 billion. All EU countries were compelled to destroy SRM as of 1 October, but the logistics of how Spain will cope with the task with only five incinerator companies is causing concern.

Markus Moser, co-founder of the University of Zürich-based spin-off, Prionics AG, told Nature Medicine that sales of the company's kits have increased exponentially following the identification of BSE in German cattle at the end of November. Moser anticipates “sales of kits in excess of one million per year.”