FAMAGUSTA GAZETTE — Cyprus poses no public health risk from beef consumption, veterinary officials said, following its classification by the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) as a country with negligible risk for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE).
The statement came after Turkish Cypriot media reported the death of a man in the island’s occupied north, diagnosed July 11 with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), the human variant of BSE.
Veterinary Services stressed that BSE has never been detected in Cyprus. The country conducts regular disease surveillance under EU veterinary law, including BSE testing.
Officials said WOAH’s designation, based on a detailed technical submission, confirms Cyprus’s status as free of the disease.
Combined with ongoing monitoring, they said, there is no threat to human health from locally produced beef.