SEVENTY CATTLE seized in Co Cork by the Department of Agriculture’s special investigation unit and the Garda have been destroyed.
The cattle were found on a number of farms in north Cork and none of them had identification tags in their ears.
The investigation into the source of the animals is continuing following the raids, which took place over the last number of weeks.
Officials from the local offices of the Department of Agriculture and Food had been concerned about certain herds in the area.
In all, five farms were visited by the investigating teams which rounded up the animals and looked for identification for them.
After the animals were rounded up, they were taken to a central location for inspection and then they were slaughtered at a meat factory and their carcasses rendered.
“The meat from any animal which cannot be traced and has no identification, cannot go into the food chain for humans and must be destroyed,” said a department official.
“When an animal cannot be identified, we cannot know its disease status or anything else about it and it must be taken out of the chain,” the official added.
The investigators do not believe the animals were smuggled across the Border even though the department’s special investigation unit broke up a smuggling ring in the same area during the BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) crisis in the 1990s.
This was during a State-wide check when it emerged animals infected with BSE were being smuggled across the Border so rogue farmers could claim compensation for their herds.
In Northern Ireland, farmers were only paid for the loss of the infected animal but in the Republic, every animal on the farm was put down and farmers hit by the disease were in line for very high compensation.
The department confirmed that the Garda and its special investigation unit are continuing their investigations and prosecutions may flow from the seizures.