FARGO - Lab tests are planned to confirm whether a Grand Forks man died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a rare neurological condition with symptoms similar to mad cow disease, health officials say.

Michael Jose, 48, of Grand Forks, died Saturday. The cause of death was listed as classic CJD.

Scientists say classic CJD, though rare, is not unheard of in North Dakota or in the United States while mad cow disease, known as variant CJD, has not been found in this country.

Brain tissue will be sent to the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland to provide more information, said Larry Shireley, the state epidemiologist.

"You get two concerns," Shireley said. "One is chronic wasting disease. There's no evidence that can be transmitted to humans.

"The new variant CJD has been associated with mad cow. We have had no cases in the United States," Shireley said.

"Even though this individual is certainly younger than what we would expect, right now there's nothing to indicate this is anything else but the regular CJD," Shireley said. "Obviously, we won't know that until we have more tests."

Scientists say classic CJD usually affects people in their 60s and 70s, and about 250 people in this country are diagnosed with it each year. Symptoms include trouble standing, walking or talking, and 90 percent of its victims die within a year.

"I've worked on at least one or two cases," Shireley said. "It is extremely rare - about one in a million, but it does occur."

Variant CJD is known as a young person's disease, with half its victims dying by age 28, experts say. Early symptoms tend to include depression, pain or numbness.

Chronic wasting disease is known to affect deer and elk. Like scrapie in sheep and CJD and the variant CJD in people, it is linked to the presence of prions, or misshapen proteins that destroy the brain.

Health officials know little about Jose, Shireley said. They did learn Tuesday that he was a hunter, as are many other North Dakotans, and they had no indication that he had traveled to other countries, Shireley said.

Lab results from Cleveland are not expected for several weeks, he said.