There has been a steady decline in the number of cattle herds being hit by brucellosis, which reached a peak in 1998 and almost cost Ireland valuable export dairy markets.
Similar declines in the levels of bovine TB and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the national herd is good news for taxpayers who have seen Exchequer costs on the schemes drop from €82.7 million five years ago to €65 million last year.
The illusion that the country was free of brucellosis, which causes female cattle to abort and can be passed on to humans, was shattered in 1998 when the disease spread rapidly through the southern counties, where the large dairy herds are based.
By the end of 1998, 1,081 herds had been confirmed as having the disease and the ratio of infected herds was approaching a level which could have cost Ireland its brucellosis-free status. Figures issued at the weekend by the Department of Agriculture and Food showed that the number of herds which have been restricted has fallen to 324.
The figures also showed that in 2003, a total of 167 herds were destroyed, 50 fewer than in 2002 but far below the peak year of 1998 when 328 herds were destroyed because of the disease which is highly contagious.
A spokesman for the Department said at the weekend that a series of measures brought in to combat the upsurge in the disease had reversed the upward trend in 1998 and that improvement had been maintained in most areas and had continued in 2003.
"Nevertheless, a significant reservoir of disease remains in some counties and the current regime needs to be maintained," he said.
The figures showed that a total of 324 herds were restricted in 2003, a drop on the number restricted in 2002, which reached 430. There were 1,081 herds restricted in 1998 and this fell the following year to 875 and to 659 in the year 2000. The decline continued in 2001 when 553 herds were restricted.
The number of herds destroyed in the 1999, fell to 317. The following year 311 herds were depopulated and in 2001, there were 273 herds destroyed.
The Department warned farmers that penalties would be applied to the compensation they are paid if their animals contact the disease if they buy in to their farms animals which were not tested for the disease within 30 days of purchase.
This pre-movement test, said the Department, was a key tool in lowering the rates of brucellosis along with intensified blood testing, monitoring at slaughter plants, diagnostic improvements, rapid depopulation and slurry treatment.
There was positive news on the fight to eradicate bovine TB in the figures given to The Irish Times by the Department.
These showed the number of "reactor" animals which failed the bovine TB test had dropped from 45,000 in 1999 to an estimated 28,000 in 2003.
The reactor numbers fell from 39,800 in 2000 to 33,700 the following year and to 28,900 in the year 2002, an improvement the Department said it was confident it can maintain.
The Irish taxpayer has already spent well over €2 billion in the schemes to eradicated bovine TB from Ireland since 1959, when the programme was first established.