The Department of Agriculture has indicated four new cases of BSE have been found in the Republic. In the North, 54 new cases were announced after they were found in casualty animals.
These 54 cases came from animals over 30 months old which were suffering from injury and illness. They came from 2,500 animals which had to be tested prior to the introduction of new EU regulations aimed at finding the true incidence of the disease in the EU through the use of enhanced surveillance.
The Northern Ireland Minister for Agriculture, Ms Brid Rodgers, expressed disappointment at the number of new cases but said it was not surprising as her department had targeted the highest risk group of cattle in the test - old, sick animals.
However, the new Northern cases will dramatically alter the infection graph for the North which reported only 22 cases last year, six in 1999, 18 in 1998, 28 in 1997 and 81 in 1996. Since first identified in the North, there have been a total of 1,811 cases of the disease in the herd of roughly 1.5 million animals.
The Minister said the tests had been carried out to address possible future criticisms that the true incidence of BSE in Northern Ireland was not known. Such criticism was contained in the recent report of an EU inspection in Northern Ireland last year.
A Department of Agriculture spokesman in Dublin said it also had been testing fallen and casualty animals since July of last year, and this had also increased the number of confirmed cases in 2000.
The number of BSE cases found last year jumped to 149 from the previous year's total of 95. There were 83 the previous year and 80 cases in 1997. The national herd size is around 7.5 million animals.
The four new cases reported in the Republic this week were found in two herds in Cavan and a herd in Galway and another in Kerry. There was one eight-year-old animal, one seven-year-old and two six-year-old victims.
The Department spokesman said allegations made recently that it had been massaging the figures, because older animals were now going straight into the EU Purchase for Destruction Scheme, were without foundation.
"The number of heads coming into our laboratories for tests has remained fairly constant over the last few weeks. For instance, this week's four cases came from the examination of 14 heads," the spokesman said.
Following a meeting between the president of the Irish Farmers' Association, Mr Tom Parlon, and EU officials in Brussels yesterday, Mr Parlon said the EU was considering the purchase of 800,000 tonnes of beef; 300,000 tonnes over and above what was expected to be purchased for destruction.
He said that were the Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, to agree to this proposal, it would reduce the number of cattle in Europe by over one million head.