BSE figures for the first nine months of this year have shown a major decline in the number of cases of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in the national herd.
The Department of Agriculture and Food said there were 50 cases of the disease found so far this year. In the corresponding period last year 96 cases were recorded, and in the nine month period in 2003 the figure was 143.
The highest nine month figure for BSE recorded since the disease was first identified here in 1989, was in 2002 when the number of infected animals found in the first three-quarters of the year was 254 cases.
The decline in the Irish infection rates mirrors a similar decline in Britain where the disease was first identified and originated in the early 1980s. From a high level of 34,000 cases in the British herd in 1992, the authorities there have now reduced the number of cases found so far this year to just 121.
This has been done because the British removed all the older cattle aged over 30 months, which might have been exposed to contaminated cattle feed and destroyed them.
The EU veterinary and health authorities have now agreed to lift the over 30 months ban on British animals entering the foodchain and by the end of the year, the British consumer will be able to eat beef from older animals.
Other European countries which were not recording cases of the disease when it was rampant in Britain and Ireland, are now experiencing an upturn in numbers, possibly because of the EU demands that more tests be carried out to look for the disease. Germany has experienced an annual increase in the past two years when the figure increased from 54 to 65 cases. Poland has also recorded an increase from 11 to 14 cases and so has the Czech Republic. Last year Japan recorded its first three cases and the disease has hit Canada where there has been two cases.
However, there has been a drop in the number of BSE cases in Spain, Portugal and Switzerland, which had one of the highest rates of the disease in the mid-1990s.