Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 109: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the number of cases of BSE in cattle discovered in 2004 and to date in 2005; the way in which this compares with recent years; the number of such cases discovered in animals born after the imposition of the ban on meat and bonemeal; the reason so many cases in such animals are still being discovered; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14186/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

In 2004, 126 cases of BSE were confirmed compared with 182 in 2003 and 333 in 2002. There have been 25 cases to date in 2005 which represents a decrease of 57% on the number of cases discovered in the same period in 2004, 59. The majority of these cases were in animals born prior to the introduction here of the additional controls in 1996 and 1997. The shift in age profile in BSE cases as well as a reduction in case numbers indicates that the additional controls have been effective in significantly reducing the exposure of animals born after 1997 to the infectious agent. It is expected that the incidence of disease will continue to decline as cows born prior to 1998 leave the system.

Investigations are carried out into the feeding regimes of all herds in which BSE is identified and in particular in herds in which cases born after the feed controls were re-enforced are confirmed. Within the context of the overall picture, the diagnosis of BSE in a small number of animals born after 1997 was to be expected. To date, 11 animals born after 1997, four in 1998 and seven in 1999, have been diagnosed with BSE. In addition, ten cases were confirmed in 1997 born animals but some of these were born before all the enhanced measures were fully in place. My Department had foreseen the likelihood that individual cases would from time to time arise which may relate to circumstances specific to the farms in question and which do not conform with the general trend as the incidence of the disease in the national herd recedes. There is, however, no basis for suspecting that these cases are indicative of either a systemic failure in controls or of a reversal of or deviation from the overall positive trend in relation to BSE in Ireland.