THE Scottish Government will today update Holyrood on the country’s first confirmed outbreak of mad cow disease in a decade.

As MSPs return from a two-week recess, rural secretary Fergus Ewing is expected to respond to an urgent question from the local Tory MSP.

Alexander Burnett’s Aberdeenshire West constituency covers Boghead Farm in Lumsden near Huntly, where the case was confirmed last Thursday.

Confirmation of BSE in one dead animal has also led to a selective cull of other cattle on the same farm, a situation owner Thomas Jackson has described as “devastating”.

Mr Burnett will ask what assurances ministers can offer consumers and the farming industry.