The European Union summary report on surveillance for the presence of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) in 2021

This report presents the results of surveillance on transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) in cattle, sheep, goats, cervids and other species, and genotyping in sheep and goats, carried out in 2021 by 27 Member States (MS, EU27), the United Kingdom (in respect of Northern Ireland) (XI), and eight other non‐EU reporting countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey. In total, 1,021,252 cattle were tested by EU27 and XI (−9%, compared with 2020 when data from the United Kingdom were not restricted to Northern Ireland), and 66,121 cattle by eight non‐EU reporting countries, with two cases of H‐BSE in France and Spain, and four L‐BSE in France (2), Germany and Spain. In total, 311,174 sheep and 118,457 goats were tested in the EU27 and XI (−6.4% and −1.8%, respectively, compared to 2020 when data from the whole United Kingdom were considered). In sheep, 551 cases of scrapie were reported by 17 MS and XI: 448 classical scrapie (CS) by six MS [80 index cases (IC) with genotypes of susceptible groups in 97% of the cases], 103 atypical scrapie (AS) (96 IC) by 13 MS and XI. In the other non‐EU reporting countries, 27,594 sheep were tested with 55 CS and 1 AS in Iceland and 8 AS in Norway. Ovine random genotyping was reported by nine MS and genotypes of susceptible groups accounted for 7.9%. In goats, 224 cases of scrapie were reported by six EU MS: 219 CS (30 IC) by six MS, and five AS (5 IC) by three MS. In total, 5,854 cervids were tested for chronic wasting disease by eight MS; all resulted negative. Norway tested 21,670 cervids with two moose and one red deer positive. In total, 149 animals from four other species tested negative in Finland and Turkey.