Govt confirms BSE in three-year-old bull
The Department of Agriculture has confirmed that a three-and-a-half-year-old bull has tested positive for BSE.
It is the youngest animal to contract the disease since the introduction of safety controls in the mid-1990s.
The department said the bull, which was born in 1999, was part of a herd slaughtered in the south-west after a nine-year-old cow in the same herd was found to have BSE.
However, it said it is still too early to say how the bull contracted the disease. An investigation is underway.
Aidan Murray, principal officer at the Department of Agriculture, said the news is not a cause for panic.
"I would reassure consumers and I would reassure farmers and the beef trade that we don't see this as anything other than an unusual and isolated case," he said.
The Government introduced strict safety controls at the height of the BSE crisis in the mid-1990s and Irish beef is currently being marketed on the strength of the fact that no animal born since then has tested positive for the disease.
However, today's news undermines that boast and is expected to cause concern among the farming community.
Pat O'Rourke of the ICMSA said: "The implication for the industry is quite serious, but what we need to do is fully investigate the circumstances in which the animal has proved to be positive."
He also said the ICMSA will be meeting department officials to ensure that the restrictions introduced in the mid-1990s, if they were found to have failed, are made 100% secure.
The IFA said it has confidence in the strict controls, but it expressed concern at this morning's development.
