Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Surveillance and Diagnosis

tries, most of which are in Western Europe [2]. Half of these countries, including Canada, Israel, and Japan, reported their first cases of BSE during 2001-2003. In the United States, BSE was identified for the first time in 2003 in a cow imported into Washington state from Canada, where 3 additional BSE cases were reported in native cattle, 2 of them in January 2005 [1, 3]. In June 2005, BSE was reported in a cow born and raised in Texas. Strong epidemiologic and laboratory evidence supported a causal link between BSE and variant CJD cases that were recognized initially in the United Kingdom but were later also reported in other coun-