ON March 30, 2001, the recommendation of the scientific steering committee (SSC) on the geographical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) risk (GBR) in Poland was adopted (SSC 2001). Due to an extremely high external challenge from 1991 to 2001 (approximately 1·7 million tonnes of meat and bone meal [MBM] had been imported since 1991 and approximately 112,000 animals has been imported since 1988 from countries affected by BSE and a very unstable system of BSE control from 1980 to 2001 (involving feeding, rendering, the removal of specified risk material [SRM] and surveillance), Poland was given GBR category III. Evaluating the internal challenge, the SSC stated that the risk of BSE) was increasing, with BSE likely to have been present since 1987. This short communication gives a brief history and description of the status of BSE in Poland. Passive surveillance for BSE was introduced in March 1996 and a ban on the use of MBM in ruminant feed started in March 1997. Active surveillance was introduced in January 2001, and removal of SRM was introduced in April 2001. A ban on the use of processed animal protein (PAP) for farm animals came into force in July 2001, and control of PAP in ruminant feedingstuffs was introduced in December 2002. Passive surveillance targeted all clinical suspects. All samples tested in the period from 1996 to 2001 gave negative results. However, the number of samples tested was very low: 42 in 1996, rising to 844 in 2001. The active surveillance scheme introduced in January 2001 was applied to 3 per cent of healthy animals above 30 months of age that were destined for human consumption (approximately 15,000 animals annually) and all at-risk animals aged 24 months and over, that is, clinical suspects, animals found dead on-farm, emergency slaughtered animals and animals imported from countries affected by BSE. According to the recommendation of the expert working group of the Polish Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to establish the basis for a BSE contingency plan in Poland, accepted by the Polish authorities, altogether approximately 20,000 animals were to be tested per year. In January 2001, a BSE laboratory for rapid testing was established and it started regular testing using the Prionics-Check Western test (Prionics) (Schaller and others 1999). Between August and October 2001, four regional laboratories started regular testing using the Bio-Rad Platelia test (Bio-Rad Laboratories). An additional laboratory was opened in January 2003, which used the Enfer-TSE (Enfer Technology) at first, and then changed to the Prionics-Check LIA test (Prionics). The present basis for active surveillance in Poland follows EU law (Regulation R999/2001) and is set in the regulation issued in February 2002 by the Polish Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. The number of tests performed between 2001 and April 2004 is shown in Table 1. Because data for the whole year are only available for 2002 and 2003, changes in numbers of samples tested were analysed only for this period. Overall, there was a 58·9 per cent increase in the total number of tests performed in 2003 compared with 2002. This was an increase of 53·7 per cent in samples from healthy animals and 243 per cent in the samples from the at-risk