The Department of Agriculture and Food is examining the possibility of changing its policy of slaughtering and destroying all animals where a BSE herd has been identified.
It confirmed this week that it is constantly monitoring the current expensive system which was put in place in 1989 when the first cases of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy were identified here.
While this has proved to be a worthwhile marketing tool giving assurances to customers of Irish beef, from a scientific point of view it is regarded as unnecessary and wasteful of resources.
In Britain, where the disease was first identified, the authorities kill only the infected animal and other cows in the herd which were born during the same year and may have eaten the same animal rations.
This has meant the British have been able to concentrate their resources on identifying so called "cohort" animals and removing them.
The total slaughter-out policy which removes all animals from the farm including male and young animals which are very unlikely to be infected, has cost the Irish taxpayer upwards of €50 million in compensation, destruction and storage of rendered meat and bonemeal from the infected herds.
A change to the British system, which has proved successful in bringing British BSE cases down to an acceptable level, would ease the burden on Irish taxpayers and would remove a great deal of trauma from farm families where the disease has been identified.
Discussion on a such a change has been taking place within the farm organisations on the fringe of the Partnership talks where farmers have already been told that Government input into the eradication of animal diseases will have to be reduced.
In the discussions, the costs of BSE were pointed out. It was also mentioned that the age profile of the animals being found with BSE indicates that the underlying trend is downwards.
The move has found some favour within the dairy sector but is being opposed by beef producers who fear that any financial benefits which might be gained could be lost on the marketing side. Such a move would, for instance, create practical difficulties in selling other animals and milk from a farm where the disease had been found in a cow.
Some countries buying Irish beef, notably Russia, have refused to buy beef from Irish counties where there are higher levels of BSE in the herds.
The BSE figures for this month, released yesterday, showed a continuing downward trend. There were 29 infected animals during January 2003 compared to 42 in the same month last year. All the animals were over six years old.