Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
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Question 150: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food if her attention has been drawn to reports that BSE has been transmitted naturally between ewes and lambs at a Government experimental farm in Britain; the implications of this development for policy here regarding BSE; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26463/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I am aware of both the confirmation of BSE in an animal born in Wales in 2002 and the reports of BSE being transmitted in an experimental sheep flock in the UK. There are no particular implications for Ireland as a result of either incident. To date there have been 16 cases of BSE confirmed in this country in animals born after 1998, the most recent born of which had a registered date of birth of March 2001. Similarly, the reports of BSE in a sheep flock, while informative, have no particular implications for BSE policy in Ireland.

The occurrence of BSE in animals born after 1998, referred to as BARB cases, born after the real ban, does not take from the decline in the incidence of the disease here and throughout the European Union. The epidemiological evidence, both here and in the UK, suggests that a tight control on the use of mammalian meat and bone meal plays a very significant role in reducing the incidence of the disease. It has been suggested in the UK that these BARB cases may be related to imported feed as the controls, which have been in place in Ireland and the UK since 1996, were not introduced EU-wide until 2000. Given the incubation period for BSE, we will, at EU level, have to wait another few years before the full effect of the complete ban on the use of processed animal proteins can be measured.

Apart from the aforementioned case in the UK, no case of BSE has been identified in the EU sheep population despite the fact that testing, which is capable of discriminating BSE from scrapie, is now mandatory throughout the EU. Were such a case to be identified in this country consideration would have to be given about how to deal with the affected flock and the progeny of the affected animal.

Although a case of BSE has been confirmed in a single goat in France, no such cases have been experienced in Ireland and should such a case be confirmed here, decisions about control measures would have to be taken.

The Department continues to operate a range of controls at various locations to protect public health and to eradicate BSE and scrapie.