Spanish news reports said the 64-year-old woman was the mother of a 41-year-old man who also died of the brain-wasting disease earlier this year.

The health ministry said laboratory tests confirmed that the woman had Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), the human variant of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease.

"The laboratory in the Alcorcon Hospital in Madrid has confirmed the third case of the human variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in Castilla and Leon region, and the fourth in Spain," the health ministry said.

It emphasised that the case "poses no risk to the health of the public".

The government revealed on August 27 that the woman had suspected CJD and that laboratory tests would be carried out to confirm if that was the case.

Spain recorded its first human death from mad cow disease in June 2005 when a 26-year-old woman succumbed to it in Madrid.

More than 200 people around the world are suspected to have died, most of them in Britain, from the human variant of the disease, which was first described in 1996.

Scientists believe the disease was caused by using infected parts of cattle to make feed for other cattle.

Authorities believe eating meat from infected animals can trigger the human variant of the fatal brain-wasting disease.

The 27-member EU, of which Spain is part, has banned high-risk materials such as spinal cord from use in feed and stricter labelling was also introduced.

AFP