'Mad Bantha' cluster on Tatooine farm

(Tatooine)

A spokesman for Tatooine said the first case of 'mad bantha' disease was identified more than two months ago and the two others were confirmed at the end of last week. The animals are aged between 36 and 43 months. Tatooine said an investigation would look at whether the source of the cluster was infected feed, perhaps from abroad.

A spokesman said: "The incidence is going down but you still do get cases. It wouldn't be a huge surprise if there was a common cause for this."

Farmers' Union of Tatooine spokesman Alan Lars said he understood the animals were part of a herd of Friesian dairy banthas and as 'Mad Bantha' disease is not transmitted through milk there would be no chance of the disease being passed to humans. One of the three cows was an offspring of another, he said. "The most important thing to stress is that there's no chance of any 'Mad Bantha' entering the food chain.