The Department of Agriculture has not ruled out the possibility of a case of BSE turning up in an animal born after the end of 1996, its top expert on the disease said yesterday.
Ms Hazel Sheridan, told a press briefing yesterday that it would be disappointing if such a case was to be found in an animal born after controls on feed became fully operative, but it could not be ruled out going on the experience in Britain.
Ms Sheridan, who is a senior veterinary inspector and an epidemiologist, said the Department believed it had "closed the door" on the source of infection with the controls imposed in August 1996 when pig and poultry feed containing meat and bonemeal, was segregated from cattle feed at mill level.
She predicted that the number of cases being recorded weekly would continue to rise because of the additional testing on sick and casualty animals at knackeries and because of the mass screening of all animals over 30 months of age in meat factories.
She was giving her briefing against the background of a sharp increase in the number of cases being found weekly. This week there was a total of 15 new cases, bringing the total found so far this year to 88.
She said she took comfort in the figures because, despite the rise in them caused by additional testing, there was no indication the number of animals being infected was rising.
For instance, there had been a fall in the number of positive cases identified by farmers and vets in the 2000-2001 period, even though the number of suspect cases reported had increased from 354 in 2000 to 484 in 2001. In the two years, the number of positives identified from these referrals had fallen from 138 to 123.