- Ten new cases of BSE were found in the national herd
this week bringing the total to 167 for the first five months this year,
the Department of Agriculture said yesterday.
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- Ireland has now had over 1,000 cases of bovine spongiform
encephalopathy since the disease was first identified here in 1989, three
years after the disease was uncovered in Britain.
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- All of the 10 new cases were born after 1997 when the
ban on feeding meat and bonemeal to cattle became fully operative with
the segregation of cattle and pig ration milling in the Republic.
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- There were two six-year-old animals with the disease
discovered this week in herds in Wicklow and Tipperary. There were three
seven-year-oldsfound at farms in Cavan, Cork and Offaly. One eight-year-
old animal was found in Meath, and three nine-year- olds were found in
herds in Monaghan, Wexford and Louth.
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- A 10-year-old cow was found in a Co Cork dairy herd.
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- Five of the cases were found by the traditional means
of passive identification on farms and the remaining animals were identified
when tested at knackeries, where they had been taken as casualty or ill
animals.
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- A spokesman for the Department stressed that the underlying
trend in BSE cases remained positive and the increasing age profile of
animals was clear evidence that the enhanced controls put in place in 1996
and early 1997 were proving effective.
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- The incidence of the disease, said the Department, was
expected to decline as older animals work their way out of the national
herd.
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- http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2002/0601/3313418310HM2BSE.html
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