Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are a group of diseases that affect the brain and nervous system of humans and animals. TSEs are caused by an abnormal form of a protein called prion.
TSEs of animals include: bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle, scrapie in sheep and goats, chronic wasting disease in cervids, transmissible mink encephalopathy in mink, feline spongiform encephalopathy in cats. TSEs of humans are: Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD), vCJD, Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome, Fatal Familial Insomnia and kuru in humans.
In 2021 and 2022, the Commission is awarding overall €14 million and €11 million, respectively, to 26 EU countries to contribute to:
- Maintaining the number of classical BSE cases in the Union at a very low level (below three cases per year for all EU Member States);
- Increasing the number of Member States with a negligible BSE risk (at least 26 Member States by the end of 2022);
- Decreasing the number of index cases of classical scrapie in sheep and goats in EU (15 Member States with no classical scrapie over last 7 years).
Related links
Commission Implementing Decision (EU) No 2013/76
authorising certain Member States to revise their annual BSE monitoring programme
Commission Regulation (EC) 2021/1176
on genotyping of positive TSE cases in goats, the determination of age in ovine and caprine animals, the measures applicable in a herd or flock with atypical scrapie and the conditions for imports of products of bovine, ovine and caprine origin
Commission Regulation (EU) 2020/772
on the eradication measures for transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in goats and endangered breeds
Commission Regulation (EC) No 727/2007
on the rules for the prevention, control and eradication of certain transmissible spongiform encephalopathies
Commission Regulation (EC) No 214/2005
on the monitoring of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in caprine animals