Yea, this IS full of politics indeed.
Britain had the most cases and IIRC the order of magnitude was something about several hundred confirmed cases.
Other countries like France or Germany had less (round about 100 per country IIRC) cases and many of them turned out to be something different.
It's the old story: if you look hard enough you will always find something. I'm sure there is more then one case of BSE in Canada but its not that much hyped as it was in Europe. People here refused to eat beef meat at all and drastic regulations were enforced so that the market wouldn't totally collapse. As usual - with some distance to it - most people are right back now to their "meat level" like nothing ever happened.
Am I afraid of BSE? Well, I think it is a wise thing to test the meat and have a look that only occasionally some undetected BSE meat will reach me, minimizing the risk. Further I think cattle (that is no herbivore at all) should be feed with remains of other animals.