Japan's Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry on Monday confirmed that a five-year-and-four-month-old female cow, which died last week in northern Japan, has tested positive for mad cow disease. The discovery brings to 30 the number of confirmed bovine spongiform encephalopathy cases in Japan.

Reports say the cow was born in June 2001 before the implementation of a ban on meat-and-bone meal which is suspected of being the cause of the brain-wasting disease. The cow was traced on a farm in Chitose, Hokkaido prefecture, it was said

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirms mad cow disease has been found in Alberta province.

It is Canada's eighth case of mad cow disease since 2003, and the fifth case this year

Portugal's Azores islands confirmed its new case of mad cow disease. It is the country's sixth instance of the affliction since November 2000.

Scientifically known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease, it was found in screening tests and verified by the national veterinary laboratory

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has hosted a meeting to review the Harvard Risk Assessment of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), also known as "mad cow disease," in the United States on July 25.

The FSIS, a part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), took a look at new data, and says the risk of a human contracting BSE has fallen

New research says a blood test to detect mad cow and related diseases in both humans and animals before they develop symptoms, may be possible.

Current tests require brain or tissue samples, yet scientists say the brain may "leak" the infectious prions that cause diseases like bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE; opening the possibility for a test to detect them in the blood stream