A French government health watchdog announced Tuesday that two more people have been diagnosed with the human form of mad-cow disease bringing the national tally to 11.

In an attempt to preempt any public concern over the issue, the Institute of Health Surveillance (InVS) said in a statement that the two individuals diagnosed with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) "are not on the records as having been blood donors."

vCJD is the human form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) -- a disease restricted to cattle and commonly known as "mad-cow disease" -- whose first outbreak occured in Britain in 1980s.

BSE is believed to have leapt the species barrier to humans in the form of vCJD when beef from infected cattle was consumed in Britain. vCJD remains incurable and so far 149 people have died of the disease in Britain.

Four French nationals have been identified in less than six months as having contracted vCJD. Two, identified in October and November, had been blood donors between 1984 and 2002 and health authorities have launched an investigation to track down recipients of the blood.

BSE came to the fore in the late 1980s in Britain which had been exporting beef to the European Union (EU) and beyond.

In 1996, EU-wide laws were introduced to toughen animal feed content, require the slaughter of suspect animals and ban the sale of animal parts most likely to harbor the disease.

Source: Xinhua