Only eight cases of the bovine disease BSE have been found in the national cattle herd in the first four months of the year.
In the same period in 2006 23 cases of the disease were uncovered, in a year that saw 41 cases in total.
There were 69 cases in 2005, 126 cases in 2004, 182 in 2003 and 333 in 2002, the year with the highest number of cases since the disease was first identified here in 1989.
The majority of animals now being found with the disease are in an older subset which may have been exposed to contaminated cattle feed.
The number of cases in Ireland and worldwide has fallen dramatically since the segregation of cattle feed manufacture from pig and poultry food which contained meat and bonemeal.
It is thought that contaminated meat and bonemeal, which was fed to cattle in the early 1980s in Britain, was the cause of the disease of the central nervous system in cattle.
In the Netherlands, a seven-year-old cow has tested positive for BSE, the first case this year and the 83rd since 1997, the Dutch agriculture ministry said at the weekend.
"The cow had clinical symptoms of bovine spongiform encephalopathy," the ministry said in a statement.
It said the cow, on a farm in Aalten in the east of the Netherlands, and its calf had been slaughtered. Six other cows from a nearby farm were also slaughtered.
The Netherlands is one of the world's biggest exporters of meat and dairy products and its livestock sector has undergone major changes in the past few years, with most animals raised on specialised farms.