The seven new cases of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) diagnosed this week brings to 320 the number of cases of the disease found so far this year in the national herd. Sources in the industry said there was no major reaction from Irish beef customers to the announcement last week of the discovery of a three-year-old bull infected with the disease.
The Co Limerick born animal should not have been exposed to infected meat and bonemeal because strict feeding and manufacturing controls were put in place by the Department of Agriculture and Food in 1997.
These became fully effective, according to the EU, in early 1998 and although there had been warnings that isolated cases of the disease might turn up, the finding of the infected young bull has posed question marks over the effectiveness of current controls on farms.
Meanwhile, an intensive investigation is continuing on the Limerick farm where the bull was identified and on another Limerick farm where the bull was born and spent the first 14 months of its life.
The investigation is focused on a storage area used to hold poultry food which contained meat and bonemeal, but was later used to store cattle feed. The age profile of this week's cases was high. Four of the animals were aged nine years, one was an eight-year-old and two were six-year-olds.