It is not possible to rule out the appearance of vCJD - a fatal brain disease linked to BSE in cattle - in Ireland in the future, the National Disease Surveillance Centre (NDSC) has said.
So far there has been one case of vCJD in this country and the victim appears to have acquired the infection in Britain.
It is encouraging that there does not appear to have been any indigenous cases of vCJD in Ireland, the NDSC says in a draft report published on its website. "However, it must be borne in mind that the timing of peak exposure in the Irish population is more recent than in the UK and, particularly given the uncertainty concerning the incubation period of vCJD, it is not possible to rule out cases of vCJD appearing at a later date."
BSE in Ireland is confined to older cattle that were fed contaminated bone meal prior to current controls. However, the incubation period of BSE means that "although the risk of cattle acquiring BSE has been eliminated, the peak in the number of clinical cases in cattle may not yet have been reached".
The total number of future clinical and non-clinical cases of BSE in Irish cattle has been estimated at 489 cases.
The report points out that there are a number of stringent controls in place to ensure that BSE-infected animal products cannot enter the food chain in Ireland.
There were 20 reported human CJD-like cases in Ireland between 1996 and 2001. Of these, 17 cases were of sporadic CJD which typically affects people between 55 and 75 years. One was linked to contaminated human growth hormone use, one was of a hereditary form of CJD and one was vCJD linked to BSE.
The draft report can be downloaded from http://www.ndsc.ie the website of the National Disease Surveillance Centre.