The discovery of a three-year-old bull suffering from Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) on a Co Limerick farm is a setback in the programme to rid the national herd of the disease.
Initial investigations would appear to indicate that the animal, the youngest case to be identified in this state, may have been exposed to infected meat and bonemeal at some stage in its life. This indicates there has been some deficit in the controls in place since 1989 to prevent cattle from being fed contaminated meat and bonemeal, which would appear to be the main cause of the spread of the disease.
The segregation of meat and bonemeal ration manufacturing for pigs and poultry from cattle feed in 1996 should have started the decline in the number of cases to be expected in the national herd. The Consumers Association of Ireland is right in expressing anger that in 2002, Ireland should discover its youngest-ever case in this animal, which was probably infected by contaminated feed. Had there been total control on the use of meat and bonemeal, Ireland would now be looking at putting a date on the day the disease would be eradicated from the national herd.
The discovery of the disease in this animal will, no doubt, be used by Ireland's competitors in the international beef markets to point out that it could be another decade or more before we can claim BSE-free status. That being said, there is no doubt that the controls in place here to prevent infected beef from entering the human food chain are impressive.
All the animals in a BSE infected herd are removed, tested for BSE and slaughtered and their bodies destroyed, a system used only by Ireland and France. In addition, the specified risk material in which the disease might be passed on is removed from all animals going for slaughter and incinerated.
As a further precaution, all animals over 30 months-old going into the food chain are tested for the disease and more than 600,000 animals have been tested in the years 2000 and 2001. It is a belt and braces system which has been designed to protect consumers from possible vCJD. After this setback its implementation must be strengthened and reinforced if Ireland's credibility as a safe source of beef for domestic and export markets is to be preserved.