The BSE crisis will cost the European Union's farmers €92 billion, according to a new study.
The EAAP, an umbrella group for beef producers, farming bodies, scientists and government departments in Europe, said that although Britain accounted for 95 per cent of all cases, the economic impact was equally felt by beef producers right across the EU.
"The cost of the epidemic has been enormous. Up to 10 per cent of the annual value of beef output has been lost - half through reduced animal value, half in costs for control measures," the EAAP report said.
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) was first identified in Britain in 1986, and spread to 21 countries worldwide, plunging Europe's multi-billion euro meat industry into chaos.
Its equivalent in humans, variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (vCJD) also spread, mainly affecting Ireland, Britain and France.
"BSE has been a calamity for governments, for the meat trade, for farmers and most of all for the 150 people who have died from the BSE-linked vCJD," Dr Patrick Cunningham, chairman of European Association for Animal Production (EAAP) which published the report, said.
It said European livestock farmers will continue to face stiff challenges arising from the crisis, with long-term price decline of around 3 per cent per annum likely.
Britain was by far the most severely affected, with 183,496 confirmed cases in cattle and a human death count of 136 victims of vCJD.
In Ireland, experts believe the disease is close to being eradicated from the national herd. There has been 120 cases reported to date this year compared to 215 at the same time last year.
Though the crisis is at last nearing an end Europe-wide, there is still little known about the cause of the disease.
"The BSE epidemic is slowly drawing to a close, will probably be finished in 10 years, and is unlikely to reoccur," the report concluded.
Although the disease is thought to be linked to an animal diet of meat and bone meal, the theory has yet to be properly confirmed, the EAAP said.
There are also doubts about the future impact of the non-curable vCJD on the human population, particularly as the disease can incubate in humans for years before symptoms occur.
"Major and overdue corrective actions have been taken - tightened controls, new laws, new food safety agencies. These amount to a sea change in the way food will be produced in Europe in the future," the EAAP said.
"In this present context, it is ironic to note that the situation on animal disease in Europe has never been better," the report concluded.