A second case of BSE has been found in the national dairy herd at Moorepark, Fermoy, Co Cork, the Department of Agriculture confirmed last night. The case was discovered in follow-up investigations into the herd, which is managed by Teagasc, the farm advisory and development service at the National Dairy Centre.
The first case was identified in early autumn and the herd of 530 prize animals, reckoned to be the best herd in the country, was slaughtered in accordance with Department of Agriculture policy.
During this investigation an additional case of the disease was found in a cohort animal.
The discovery posed some questions about feed as Teagasc compounds its own feed for the animals and the rations should have excluded meat and bonemeal, banned in cattle feed since 1990.
However in Britain, where the disease was first identified, banning meat and bonemeal, which is thought to be the source of the disease, did not reduce the incidence of BSE.
In 1996, the British discovered cross-contamination of cattle feed in mills where meat and bonemeal was being prepared for pig and chicken food. Since then here and in Britain, the preparation of pig and chicken feed must be carried out in special plants.
It has also emerged that two other cases of the disease, which were found in similar follow-up investigations, came from one Leinster farm, bringing the number of cases in that herd to three.
To date, there have been only three farms in Ireland where multiple cases of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy have been identified.
The three new cases, revealed in the Dail on Tuesday, bring the total number of cases in the State this year to date to 68. Last year, there were 74.