France reports lone case of mad cow disease

France has confirmed an isolated case of mad cow disease in a five-year-old cow that died in the northeast Ardennes region.

The Agriculture Ministry said on Thursday that it was the third isolated case detected in Europe since last year. France notified the World Health Organization of the case, as well as the European Commission.

"The detection of this case has no consequences for the consumer," the ministry statement said.

There is no known treatment for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad cow disease. A human disease, variant CJD, is linked to consumption of tainted meat.

France and Britain lived through a full-blown crisis of the brain-wasting disease in the 1990s.