The Department of Agriculture and Food announced that there were nine cases of BSE confirmed in November. This brings the number of cases so far this year to 79.
The nine cases, however, are fewer than the 14 in the same month last year but it looks likely that the number of infected animals will exceed last year's total of 83.
The Department of Agriculture was taking some comfort in the fact that the cases were all in cows aged five years and over, indicating that controls put in place to prevent contamination of feed are beginning to show dividends.
The new cases were detected in two herds in Wexford and two in Clare and single cases in Cos Wicklow, Cavan, Westmeath, Donegal and Limerick.