Written answers

Tuesday, 6 February 2007

Department of Agriculture and Food

Bovine Disease Controls

10:00 am

Photo of Michael D HigginsMichael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
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Question 147: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the number of BSE cases detected here during 2006; the location of each of these cases; the reason for the persistence of BSE in cattle here; and the steps she is taking to address the issue. [3762/07]

Photo of Mary CoughlanMary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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41 cases of BSE were confirmed in 2006. The following table gives the location of each case by county.

There has been a dramatic reduction in the incidence of BSE in Ireland. The number of cases peaked in 2002 at 333, following the introduction of mass surveillance at slaughter plants and knackeries in 2001. Almost 700,000 animals are tested per annum in Ireland under this surveillance regime. Despite this, the numbers of animals confirmed with the disease fell to 182 in 2003, 126 in 2004, 69 in 2005 and 41 last year.

The vast majority of these cases were in animals born prior to the introduction of additional controls in 1996 and 1997. 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. To date, 18 animals born after 1997 have been diagnosed with BSE and 12 cases were confirmed in 1997 born animals but some of these were born before all the re-enforced measures were fully in place. No cases have been confirmed in any animals born after 2001. The diagnosis of BSE in a small number of cases in animals born after 1997 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 which was not unexpected. 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.

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.

Incidence of BSE in 2006 by county
County2006
Carlow2
Clare5
Cork North4
Cork South2
Donegal1
Galway1
Kerry5
Kilkenny2
Leitrim1
Limerick3
Louth1
Mayo2
Meath1
Monaghan5
Offaly3
Tipperary North1
Westmeath1
Wexford1
Total41

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