Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The farm had a previous incident of BSE in 2002 and unfortunately we have had this one-off incident on the farm again. The honest answer is we cannot pinpoint exactly what caused this, because in all likelihood it was something the animal ingested six or perhaps five years ago. We are sharing our results with other countries in Europe which have had one-off cases in recent years to try to gain a better scientific understanding about how these one-off cases happen. There are different theories on it. With regard to all we could have practically done in testing, we tested current feed on the farm and our inspectors looked at the farm in great detail with regard to feed storage facilities looking for any clues or hints as to how this might have happened. With regard to how it is run, the farm's cleanliness and organisation is exemplary. It is a really well run farm so it is unfortunate this incident has happened. We will do what we can with other countries to draw further conclusions but the conclusions we have drawn on the basis of the testing we have done are very reassuring to date.

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