Thye Irish sheepmeat industry which is worth €260 million annually in exports, is bracing itself for another food scare. This follows reports from Britain that it may ban sheep over one year old entering the food chain because of the possibility of BSE in sheep.
Sheep infected with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in laboratory conditions displayed the same symptoms as the sheep disease scrapie, and scientists believe scrapie could mask BSE in sheep.
The issue was discussed at the last meeting of the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) which advises the British government on BSE and the human disease, variant CJD.
The SEAC chairman, Prof Peter Smith, said if there was BSE in sheep all the evidence to date suggested the level must be low, "but we can't at this stage say there's zero".
"There is a theoretical risk of a low level of BSE, and that's the yardstick against which precautionary measures must be taken," he said.
Recommendations about the proposals are due to go before the British Food Standards Agency board this month. The FSA board will then make a decision and advise the government.
Dr Patrick Wall of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, said there was a very low level of scrapie in the Irish sheep flock and the Department of Agriculture had recently moved to eradicate any flocks with scrapie.
"The issue is theoretical because despite major investigations in Britain, they have still to identify a sheep with BSE. However, when sheep were infected with BSE in laboratories, it went right through the system of the animal," he said.
A Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development official said it had taken out insurance against such reports by having removed scrapie-infected flocks in the State.
In the past 10 years there had never been more than 15 cases of the disease found in the national flock of eight million animals. "We follow scientific principles and we have heard nothing from the EU Scientific Steering Committee about these proposals. However, we will review our current controls, which currently include the removal of specified risk material from all sheepmeat, if there are any new developments," he said.
Unlike Britain, he said, Ireland had a full traceability system in place and had tested 60,000 healthy sheep at slaughter in the past two years and 6,000 targeted sheep would be tested for the disease from April 1st next.
The chairman of the Irish Farmers' Association national sheep committee, Mr Laurence Fallon, said the reports had the potential to damage Ireland's lucrative sheep industry.
He said linking BSE with sheepmeat even without a scientific basis could impact heavily on consumption and if a ban was placed on sheep over one year old entering the human food chain, it would hit 20 per cent of Irish exports which have been estimated at €260 million by An Bord Bia.
The Irish Cattle and Stockowners Association said almost 400,000 head of older sheep were exported each year worth approximately €20 million to sheep producers here.