THE farmer whose herd has been hit by Scotland’s first case of mad cow disease in a decade has spoken of his “heartbreak” as more animals are slaughtered.

Thomas Jackson, of Boghead Farm in Lumsden, Aberdeenshire, said confirmation of BSE on the property had been “personally devastating.”

His comments, released through NFU Scotland, coincided with news that up to four more animals will be culled and tested at the farm, although the results could take “months”.

Read more: Mad cow disease on Scots farm deals bitter blow to industry

Mr Jackson said: “We have built up our closed herd over many years and have always taken great pride in doing all the correct things.

"To find through the surveillance system in place that one of our cows has BSE has been heartbreaking.

"Since this has happened we have been fully cooperating with all the parties involved and will continue to do so as we, like everyone, want to move forward and clear up this matter.

"The cohorts and offspring of the cow have now been identified and as a purely precautionary measure they will be slaughtered and tested in due course; again we are fully cooperating with all the parties with regards to this."

According to a website for a holiday let on the farm, Mr Jackson is a fifth generation farmer who moved to Huntly from Gloucestershire in 2012.

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Scotland’s chief vet Sheila Voas said the five-year-old animal at the source of the outbreak had died and BSE discovered as part of routine testing on all fallen stock over four years.

She insisted there was “no need to panic”, as there was a movement ban on the farm and the isolated case of “classic BSE” did not pose a threat to human health.

A movement ban is also in place at Boghead Farm.

Some forms of BSE can be passed on to humans in the food chain, causing a fatal brain condition called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD).

Ms Voas also told BBC Radio Scotland that other animals would have to be culled.

She said: “The [infected] animal itself is dead, she died before she was tested, and there are three other animals, or possibly four, that will need to be slaughtered purely from a precautionary basis.

"We'll slaughter them, take brain stem samples and and check them."

Officials have stressed the case poses no risk to human health and its discovery proves the surveillance system in place is working effectively.

However, any farmer with concerns is advised to seek immediate veterinary advice.

Read more: What is mad cow disease? First Scottish case of BSE confirmed in decade

Ms Voas said she believed BSE occurred spontaneously in the affected animal, rather than being transmitted, but it could be several months before investigators could say for certain.

“All the information we have is this is under control, there's no reason for people to panic. It's not the start of an outbreak, it's a single isolated case that won't affect the food chain."

She added: “We do surveillance as a matter of routine as part of controls. Back in the 90s there was a big problem with BSE and we've learned an awful lot of lessons from then and there are various controls in place to make sure that never happens again.

"Every animal that dies over 48 months is tested, we test something like 20,000 samples a year from Scotland, this one was picked up as a result of that, it's the first one that's been picked up since 2008."

The discovery of BSE has ended Scotland’s prized “negligible risk” status, which was only conferred in May 2017 after eight and a half years of the country being BSE-free.

The status, which means greater market access for international beef exports, is still enjoyed by North Ireland, but Scotland is down demoted to equal footing with England and Wales.

After BSE was first discovered in the UK in 1986 there were an estimated 180,000 infected animals, leading to the slaughter of 4.4m in largely successful eradication programme.

Since 2011 there had been only 16 cases in the UK.

SNP Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing said: “While it is important to stress that this is standard procedure until we have a clear understanding of the disease's origin, this is further proof that our surveillance system for detecting this type of disease is working."

Food Standards Scotland said strict controls remain in place to protect consumers from BSE risk.