Ireland has been included on a list of EU countries from which Egypt will accept beef imports.
The list, published by the Egyptian government on Monday night, includes Ireland, the Netherlands and France, according to the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development.
Egypt closed its market to European beef imports this time last year over the rising level of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in the EU. This halted Irish beef exports to the largest non-EU market for beef, which was then worth nearly £200 million.
A Department of Agriculture spokesman said yesterday the next step would involve the setting up of veterinary teams in Egypt which will inspect beef from the countries concerned.
Last week the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, expressed satisfaction at the progress in reopening the market and revealed that 32 licences to export beef to Egypt had been sought by Irish exporters. However, it could be some time before trading restarts.
Meanwhile, the British government announced yesterday that it would test the brains of all at-risk cattle born after British feed controls for animals became effective.
It said independent laboratory testing would be carried out on animals born between August 1st, 1996 and July 31st, 1997, to gauge how effective the controls had been. Animals aged over 30 months and which do not go into the food chain will also be tested.
There have been almost 180,000 cases of BSE found in British cattle since the disease was identified there in 1986. However, since the segregation of cattle feed compounding from that of pigs and poultry in 1996, there has been a dramatic decline in the number of cases.
The European Parliament's decision to ban the use of export refunds for live exports of cattle and to limit journeys to eight hours has been welcomed by animal welfare groups. Ms Patricia McKenna MEP, of the Green Party, said the vote by her colleagues sitting in Strasbourg yesterday signalled the death knell of the live export trade in cattle.