The number of cases of BSE for this year is the highest on record with the announcement yesterday that 16 new cases had been found in December, bringing the annual number of cases of the disease diagnosed this year to 95. Last year the number of cases of the disease rose to 83.
However, last night a spokesman for the Department of Agriculture and Food said its veterinary service felt that the age profiles of the animals involved were "going in the right direction".
He said there had been only six cases of cows of four years of age diagnosed this year compared with 13 in the previous year, a reduction of more than 50 per cent.
He explained that the full implementation of controls to prevent any possible contamination of cattle feed had been put in place at the end of 1996 and that was why the number of younger animals was highly significant from a veterinary point of view.
He agreed that while the overall yearly figures for BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) were disappointing, the figures represented a tiny fraction of the cattle population of the Republic which stands at seven million. In December one four-year-old cow was diagnosed, four were five years old, seven were six years old, two were seven and there was one eight and one nine-year-old. The figures showed there were three cases in Co Cork, two each in counties Wexford, Limerick and Kerry and there were single cases in herds in Cavan, Longford, Tipperary, Leitrim, Kilkenny, Galway and Meath.
Yesterday's announcement means that there have been a total of 447 cases of the disease found here since 1989, when it was first identified.
The annual figures since 1989 show there were 15 cases in that year, 14 in 1990, 17 in 1991, 18 in 1992, 16 in 1993, 19 in 1994, 16 in 1995, 74 in 1996, 80 in 1997, 83 in 1998 and 95 in 1999.