Poland's veterinary service has begun testing cattle for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, using tests imported from Switzerland, its director said on Thursday.

All imported slaughtered cattle, cows showing signs of neurological disorder, and randomly-selected Polish cattle over 30 months old will be tested for the disease, chief veterinarian Andrzej Komorowski told AFP. Poland, which has no confirmed cases of BSE, has banned the import of cattle and beef from 12 European countries following outbreaks of mad cow disease.It purchased 5,000 Prionics kits from Switzerland to step up its monitoring of cattle. Import and transit of animal feed containing ground meat and bone from cows has also been banned as it is suspected of transmitting the disease. Poland has no confirmed cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), the fatal human illness which doctors believe may be caused by eating beef infected with BSE. The Polish veterinary service has also begun to introduce cow tagging and is establishing cattle registers in two regions. The tagging and registers are required under EU rules on agricultural compensation, and are also useful in tracking cattle if BSE cases are discovered.