Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 143: 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 which were discovered in animals born after the imposition of the ban on meat and bone meal; the reason so many cases in such animals are still being discovered; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26461/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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There were 126 cases of BSE confirmed in 2004 compared with 182 in 2003 and 333 in 2002. To date in 2005 there have been 50 cases which represents a decrease of 47% on the number of cases — 96 — discovered in the same period in 2004. The majority of the confirmed cases were in animals born prior to the introduction of the additional controls in 1996 and 1997. The age profile of BSE cases as well as the reduction in case numbers indicates that these additional controls have been effective in significantly reducing the exposure of animals born after 1997 to the infectious agent. It is anticipated that the incidence of disease will continue to decline as cows born prior to 1998 leave the system.

Where BSE is confirmed, a detailed epidemiological investigation is undertaken and the feeding regime used is an essential element in that investigation, particularly in confirmed cases where the animal was born after the feed controls were reinforced.

To date, 16 animals born after 1997 have been diagnosed with BSE. In addition, ten cases were confirmed in 1997 born animals of which a number were born before all the reinforced measures were put fully in place that year. My Department had foreseen the likelihood that individual cases such as these would, from time to time, arise. This is likely to relate to circumstances specific to the farms in question and need 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.