The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) has certified Costa Rica as being free of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, the director general of Costa Rica’s National Animal Health Service (SENASA) told reporters this week.

“[As a result of the certification] Costa Rica has a solid basis for further growth in exports of beef and ensuring the health safety of consumers, both domestically and abroad,” SENASA director general, Dr. Bernardo Jaen Hernandez said.

The OIE will present Costa Rica’s official certification as a BSE-free beef producer in May. The country will join a list of 41 others certified free of the disease.

The first reported case of mad cow disease in the Americas was in December 1993 in Alberta, Canada. The first case in the United States was discovered in December 2003, and US beef exports were halved as some Sixty-five countries implemented full or partial restrictions on US beef by 2004.

Cows affected with the disease are usually apart from the herd and will show progressively deteriorating behavioral and neurological signs. One notable sign is an increase in aggression. Cattle will react excessively to noise or touch and will slowly become ataxic.

If humans eat contaminated animal tissue, they may develop the human form of mad cow disease known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), a degenerative neurological disease that can be fatal.