France has found an "isolated" case of mad cow disease, its first occurrence since 2011, the agriculture ministry said Thursday, according to AFP.
The ministry said the case of BSE had been detected in the northeastern region of the Ardennes, near the Belgian border.
"A suspected case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), detected in a five-year-old cow which died prematurely at a cattle farm in Ardennes, was confirmed on March 23 by the European Union reference laboratory," it said in a statement.
The case has been reported to the European Commission and the Paris-based veterinary watchdog, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), it said.