The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has moved to reassure consumers over the safety of Irish beef as a Dublin hospital continued to carry out tests on a man with suspected vCJD, the human form of mad cow disease.
Dr John O'Brien, the FSAI's chief executive, yesterday said there was a possibility the patient may have become infected 10-15 years ago from the consumption of contaminated beef in Ireland.
However, he said, rigorous food safety controls introduced in 1996 and 1997 were working and this was reflected in the declining incidence of BSE in Irish cattle .
"We believe that the controls are proving to be effective, but public confidence can only be maintained through continued vigilance and transparency," he said. "The FSAI will continue to be the over-arching watchdog and will sustain its independent audits of the current controls on an ongoing basis.
"We are confident that based on current controls, consumers of Irish beef are not being exposed to the BSE infective agent."
The hospital treating the man has ruled out the possibility that his condition might have been caused by a blood product.
This raises the likelihood that the infection may be traced back to contaminated beef. This has been the main cause of about 150 cases of vCJD in Britain.
Health authorities said the man in his 20s was still seriously ill last night. They have not named him or the hospital to allow the patient's family some privacy. It is believed the man never lived in Britain.
If the diagnosis is confirmed it would be the first indigenous case of vCJD. A 31-year-old Offaly woman diagnosed with vCJD died in 1999; however, it is thought she contracted the disease while working previously in England.
The Department of Agriculture, meanwhile, has also expressed confidence over the BSE control measures. It said BSE should be eradicated from the Irish cattle herd within a few years as a result of controls put in place about seven years ago.
These measures include the removal of "specified risk material", or the parts most likely to contain BSE if an animal is incubating the disease. The removal of this material is supervised on a day-to-day basis by veterinary inspectors.
The chairman of the State's CJD advisory group, Prof Bill Hall, also said there was no need for alarm among beef consumers.
He said experts had estimated that based on risk estimates, Ireland would have between zero and 10 cases of vCJD.
