Seventeen new cases of BSE were discovered in Irish herds in the past four weeks, the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development said yesterday.
The Department, which had been issuing the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) figures monthly for several years, said it was going to issue weekly figures from now on.
The 17 cases include some relating to last December, and the changeover will distort the yearly figures. The last monthly figures issued showed there were 149 cases last year, but this figure will rise.
The figures seem to indicate a rising number of cases being detected, as the monthly figure for January 2000 was 14. The annual totals have jumped from 1996 (74), 1997 (80), 1998 (83) and 1999 (95).
In all, since 1989 when the disease was first detected here, there have been 613 cases of BSE found in the Republic.
The positive element contained in the figures was that none of the animals was under four years old, which would indicate that the controls imposed in 1996 for a total ban on meat and bonemeal have worked.
Cross-contamination of cattle feed had continued until 1996 in some mills where the same equipment was used to compound meat and bonemeal for pigs and poultry, and for cattle. Total segregation of plants was ordered that year.
Three of the animals detected in the last four weeks were five years old, seven were six, four were seven and there was one 10-year-old, a 12-year-old and a 15-year-old.
Three of the cases were found on Cavan farms, three in Cork, and two each in Limerick, Longford and Monaghan.
There were single cases in Kerry, Laois, Leitrim, Tipperary and Wicklow.
The Department also announced that since January 2nd 22,000 tests for BSE have been carried out on animals over 30 months in Irish meat plants, and all the tests have been negative.
The EU Slaughter for Destruction Scheme continued yesterday, and 2,595 animals were killed and destroyed. Yesterday's kill brings to 15,984 the number of animals destroyed in the scheme which went into operation on Wednesday, December 10th.
The spokesman for the Associated Craft Butchers of Ireland, Mr Pat Brady, confirmed last night that his organisation had briefed its legal team to determine if it will seek a High Court injunction to stop the destruction scheme. The ACBI will decide what action it will take tomorrow.
Spain's Agriculture Minister, Mr Miguel Arias Canete, said on Thursday that Spain would slaughter 180,000 cattle in the next six months, but farmer groups say the country lacks capacity to dispose swiftly of the animals.
In Italy, 5,073 animals out of 800,000 to be screened for BSE have been tested and one positive result has been found.