THERE were 11 new cases of BSE in January, the Department of Agriculture has said in its first monthly report on cases of the disease. It brings the total number of cases in Ireland since 1989 to 200.
The new cases were found in herds in Clare, Longford, Cavan, Cork, Kilkenny, Limerick, Monaghan, Roscommon and Kildare and will involve the slaughter and destruction of 1,041 cattle.
The youngest infected cow was four years old and was found in a dairy herd of 141 cows in Cork. A five year old cow was found in a 27 strong suckler herd in Kilkenny.
Five of the cows were six years old: the Longford case from a 30 strong suckler herd, the Kildare cow from a dairy herd of 190 the Limerick case from a 169 strong dairy herd, a suckler cow from a Cavan herd of 73 animals and the Roscommon case in a Friesan cow from a dairy herd of 71.
All these animals were born following the 1990 ban imposed on the feeding of meat and bonemeal to cattle.
The oldest cow was found in a Cork dairy herd of 135 animals, and the remaining animal was a dairy cow which turned up in a dairy herd in Cavan during the month.
While most of the cases turned up in counties already included in the extended ban by the Russian authorities, the cases in Clare, Longford, and Kilkenny may have implications for the Russian contract.
The Russians are placing a ban on beef from eight counties from February 10th and from that date will not take beef from Cork, Tipperary, Monaghan, Limerick, Cavan, Wexford, Meath or Donegal. The additional counties were added earlier this month to Cork, Monaghan and Tipperary.
The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, said this week that Russia would not be reviewing the situation until May.
Only four cases of BSE were reported in January 1996, in what turned out to be the worst year for the disease since it was first identified in 1989. There were 74 cases of BSE last year, compared to 16 the previous year and 19 in 1994.
In Britain, 300 cases of BSE were reported last month.