LONDON, (Reuter) - The British government said on Tuesday it had identified 16 definite and probable cases of the newest human version of mad cow disease. In its monthly update on Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), it said there had been six cases of the brain-wasting illness so far in 1997. Of these, one was the "new variant" of CJD first identified a year ago and linked with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or mad cow disease). That brought the total number of cases of the new variant in Britain to 16, including two definite cases --identified by brain biopsy -- who were still alive. One case of the new variant has been reported in France. CJD normally strikes about one in a million. There were 57 cases in Britain last year. It is always fatal and usually has a long incubation period. Scientists warn there could be an epidemic of CJD mirroring the BSE epidemic in British cattle but say it is too soon to know.