The Spanish government has banned importation of breeding cattle from Ireland and France because of fears over BSE, writes Sean MacConnell.
The ban, which has been imposed on cattle aged 20 months and upwards, will have little impact on the live cattle trade between here and Spain, which was worth over £40 million last year. This is because Ireland's trade with Spain involves shipping younger cattle which are reared there. Last year Spain took 196,000 young cattle from Ireland, and up to August this year had imported 120,000 young animals.
While no disruption to the trade is expected, industry sources are concerned at the reaction in continental Europe to the BSE problems which have arisen in France. This year the French have had 70 cases of the disease, and recently two men were imprisoned for allowing a BSE-infected animal to be sold to one of the leading supermarket chains.
French consumers have reacted to the increasing levels of the disease and with a growing fear of contracting variant CJD, the human form of the disease. As a result, beef has been taken off the menu in many schools and institutions in France.