The discovery of another case of a young animal with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) cast a shadow yesterday over the dramatic fall in cases during the year.
While Department of Agriculture and Food officials have yet to confirm the exact birth date of the 1999-born infected Sligo animal, its discovery marred the advances made in eradicating the disease here.
Two cases of the disease were found this week, bringing the number to 126, well below last year's annual total of 186.
This represents a year-on-year reduction of over 32 per cent in the number of confirmed cases. The equivalent number of cases for 2002 was 333 cases, the highest on record since the discovery of the disease here in 1989.
There have been four cases of animals born in the State since feed controls were put in position in 1996 and considered to be fully effective by the EU.
The EU had demanded the segregation of any feed which contained bonemeal from cattle feed. Animal bonemeal was banned from cattle feed in 1998.
Scientists consider that meat and bonemeal contaminated by the remains of BSE-infected animals was the cause of the spread of the infection throughout the British bovine population.
However, it was only as instances of the disease continued to increase in Britain up to 1996 that scientists discovered cross-contamination of cattle feed in British feeding mills which were being used to compound both cattle and poultry feed.
The banning of the manufacture of cattle and pig and poultry feed in 1996 marked the beginning of the decline of BSE infection in cattle in Britain. Meat and bonemeal was allowed to be incorporated into poultry and pig feed up until 2000.
There have been a number of high-profile cases of the disease here since such the EU's Scientific Committee ruled that enhanced feed controls were proving effective in 1997.
Irish scientists had warned that, as in other countries, rogue cases were continuing to appear on both sides of the Irish Sea.
It has emerged that some of the infected animals were fed when they were calves on leftover pig and poultry food, which might have caused their infection.
Other possibilities being investigated are that the animals were smuggled in from Northern Ireland between 1996 and 2001 when an EU scheme devalued calves.