SINCE March 20th when the British House of Commons was told of a possible link between BSE and CJD, the beef industry in Ireland and the rest of Europe has been hard hit by a loss of consumer confidence.
This lack of confidence manifested itself in a dramatic decline in consumption which left the cold rooms of Europe packed to the ceilings with unwanted supplies of beef.
At great cost to the taxpayer, the EU forked out millions of pounds in direct compensation to farmer producers and millions more to EU meat plants to take beef into intervention.
By the end of the year, consumption in the EU had fallen by 10 per cent, around 5 per cent in Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland and here; by 5 to 10 per cent in France, Spain and Belgium and more than 10 per cent in Britain, Germany, Italy and Portugal.
In Ireland, the impact of the crisis cut deeply as international customers cancelled orders and all Arab countries imposed a ban on European beef.
As the crisis eased, Egypt began importing Irish cattle again and remained the only non EU outlet for live Irish cattle as the year drew to a close.
The live trade to Egypt accounted for over 130,000 animals in 1996 and underpinned a difficult market situation kept stable by the reintroduction of intervention.
Throughout most of December, when finished animals became scarce as farmers held them off the market in anticipation of a £60 payment for each animal kept for slaughter at home after January 1st, the demand from Egypt pushed the price of cattle to levels near to those obtaining before March 20th.
But immediately before Christmas there were signs of Egyptian concern at the dramatic increase in the number of cases of BSE confirmed in the Irish herd.
There had been a total of 16 cases altogether in 1995, but this annual total was surpassed by the 1996 mid year totals.
By the end of the year the number of confirmed BSE cases had risen to 75.
The Department of Agriculture suspects that at least one of these cases was deliberately imported from Northern Ireland through the security cordon at the Border which the Government set up in April 1996 to prevent animals coming south.
The Russians, currently Ireland's largest beef customer, decided in the autumn that they would not buy beef from three Irish counties, Cork, Tipperary and Monaghan.
They continued to take beef from other counties, but the fact that they had demanded and received assurances that beef would not be supplied from these counties seemed to have set off a chain reaction with other customers.
Immediately before Christmas, the Department sent its chief veterinary officer, Mr Pat Rogan, with a team to Cairo to reassure the Egyptians of the safety of Irish beef.
The team met veterinary officials in Egypt led, by Dr Ali Mousa, Egypt's chief veterinary officer.
Meanwhile the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, telephoned the Egyptian Minister of Agriculture, Dr Walli, to persuade him to continue to buy beef exports from Ireland.
Following the discussions Mr Yates expressed concern at what was happening in the Egyptian and other non EU markets.
However, there was praise from Irish exporters for the work the Minister and his team had carried out in relation to the overseas market.
In the meantime, Irish exporters to Egypt became aware that international competitors were in Cairo claiming that the Irish were suppressing BSE cases and that animals were being imported from Britain and the North for export to Egypt.
Yesterday the main exporters to Egypt suspended operations here, fearing that animals might not be accepted in Egypt when they arrive 10 days from now.
This happened earlier this year when three shiploads of cattle were left in the Mediterranean as officials refused entry to Egyptian ports.
Following direct contact between the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, and President Mubarak the animals were eventually unloaded from the ships where they had been kept for over a fortnight.