SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea said on Wednesday a deer imported from Canada in 1997 had been confirmed as infected with a disease similar to BSE, or mad cow disease.

The animal found to have chronic wasting disease (CWD) will be destroyed along with 44 other deer -- eight imported from Canada and 36 home-bred -- at the same farm, the agriculture ministry said.

Brain tissue tests will be carried out.

"One deer imported from Canada in March of 1997 was confirmed to be infected by CWD," a ministry official told Reuters, quoting the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service (NVRQS).

Animals such as deer and elk are valued for their meat and antler velvet, which is used in homeopathic remedies and aphrodisiacs, especially in Asia.

CWD - like BSE, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy - belongs to the transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) group of diseases.

Scientists are unclear on the causes of CWD, which attacks the nervous systems and brains of deer and elk, or how it spreads.

CWD has no cure and animals in the advanced stages of the disease exhibit weight loss, difficulty in swallowing and disorientation.

The disease is not thought likely to be harmful to humans or other livestock.

Korea has suspected the presence of CWD among imported deer since late last year. The Canadian government told Seoul in January this year the animal that has now been found with the disease had been raised on a Canadian farm where the brain-wasting disorder had broken out.

Since then, the Korean government has maintained restrictions on 45 animals imported from Canada and 902 other deer being raised alongside them.

Korea is the first Asian country to have confirmed CWD, which may have a 60-month incubation period.

CWD was first found in the United States in 1967 and in Canada in 1996.

Since 1997 dozens of cases have been confirmed in elk in Canada, where about 3,000 animals have been destroyed in an attempt to stop the disease from spreading.

Korea temporarily suspended imports of elk antler velvet last December because of worries about CWD. Its last imports of live deer from Canada were in 1997, the ministry official said.

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