Since early 1998 there has been an accurate Irish-produced test available for BSE in cattle. The Government is only now tendering to introduce a test scheme in the processing plants, which it hopes to have in place by early next year.
Many Irish BSE researchers were aware of the test, and they questioned why it was not already in use. It could have reassured those concerned about the safety of beef.
The Department of Agriculture did its own assessment to check the accuracy of the test late in 1997, according to Ms Riona Sayers, operations manager with Enfer Scientific Ltd, based in Newbridge, Co Kildare. She led a research group which developed the test.
"We started research about five years ago and by the end of 1996 we would have had the basis for a test," she said yesterday. "We actually approached them. The Department of Agriculture were the only people who had BSE tissues" to confirm the company's test actually worked.
The Department vouched for its accuracy, which Ms Sayers said achieved a 100 per cent rating, with no false negatives and no false positives. There was no move by the Government at that time to bring it into service, however.
SuperValu, the supermarket chain, did use the test in January 1998 for nine months to check all its beef.
The Enfer test, as it is called, went through a second audit, this time by the European Union. Its accuracy was confirmed by the EU in June 1999.
There are competing BSE tests produced in France and Switzerland, Ms Sayers said. The Irish test was faster, however, giving a result within four hours. It was also cheaper, she added, and at £20 per animal would add only about three or four pence to a pound of meat.
"All we have been doing for the Department of Agriculture was do scrapie trials," Ms Sayers said. Scrapie is a disease similar to BSE found in sheep and the company's test also works for scrapie. "It is only in the past three months that they have approached us to do surveillance for BSE."
Asked about the delay in making use of the test, a spokesman for the Department said the Government had consistently brought in extra BSE controls ahead of any request by the EU. The Commission originally asked for testing of at-risk animals to begin by January next but testing here had begun last July, he said.