Two cows in northern Italy have tested positive for mad cow disease, the first cases detected this year, the Health Ministry said Tuesday. The ministry said analysis confirmed a positive result in a 9-year-old cow from a breeding farm in the countryside of Brescia and in a 12-year-old cow in Cuneo. The number of cases detected in the country since testing began in 2001 has risen to 126. The European Union requires tests on cattle older than 30 months destined for slaughter. The disease, formally called bovine spongiform encephalopathy, affects the brains of cattle and is incurable. Two years ago, Italy reported its first case of the human form of the brain-wasting illness, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which experts believe is transmitted by eating meat from infected animals.
