Disappointing weekly BSE figures were announced yesterday by the Department of Agriculture as an Egyptian technical team continued its visit to inspect Irish controls on the disease.
The Department said that there had been 16 cases reported since the beginning of the month, which brought the yearly total so far to 83. There were 74 cases at the end of August last year.
Announcing that there were seven cases reported by this weekend, it added that due to late receipt of data for the week ending August 3rd, there were five additional cases, bringing last week's total to nine.
A Department spokesman said that since it had introduced rapid testing of casualty and fallen animals at the beginning of July, nine additional cases had been identified.
These animals, he said, would not have been going into the food chain.
He said that the age profile of the recent cases, which found no animals under five years old, showed that the additional control measures introduced in 1996 and 1997 were proving effective.
"The underlying trend in relation to the number of BSE cases disclosed remains favourable and the number of cases to date should be considered in the context of a total cattle population of 7.6 million."
Since the disease was first identified in Ireland in 1989, there has been a total of 679 cases but since 1996 the number has continued to rise annually. Last year there was a total of 149 cases.
A breakdown of the 16 August cases showed there were two six-year-old infected cows in Co Tipperary. Cos Laois, Limerick and Waterford each had one seven-year-old, Co Monaghan had one six-year-old and Co Kerry had one five-year-old. In the nine late-reported cases from last week, there was a nine-year-old in Co Monaghan, a five-year-old in Co Galway and a seven-year-old in Co Offaly. Cos Roscommon, Cavan and Monaghan each had one five-year-old, Cos Cavan and Clare a seven-year-old, and Co Cork a six-year-old.
The technical delegation from Egypt, which has been refusing to take Irish beef since the European BSE crisis in November last, has been carrying on its work here since Monday. It will recommend to its government whether the £200 million annual trade in beef with Ireland should be resumed this autumn.