As the investigation continued into the discovery of a BSE-infected animal which was born after cattle feed controls were thought to be fully effective in 1997, two cases were reported this week.
The new cases, an eight-year-old Roscommon cow and a nine-year-old Louth cow, were born before the controls were into operation. They brought the level of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy so far this year to 75 and the total for the month of June to four.
The comparable figure for last year to end of June was 113, the Department for Agriculture and Food said in a statement yesterday. In 2002 there were 203 cases by end of June, the Department's statement added. It said that the latest cases were identified using both traditional passive surveillance and the active surveillance programmes.
Under the active surveillance programme, testing of a proportion of fallen stock and cattle destined for human consumption was initiated in July 2000. This was extended in January 2001 to test all cattle over 30 months destined for human consumption and all casualty animals. Since July 2001 all fallen cattle are also tested.
The Department repeated its weekly statement that the underlying trend in BSE cases remains positive.