The discovery of three cases of BSE this week has brought to an end a three-week period in which no cases were reported.
It has been seven years since such a period elapsed without a recorded case of the disease and the Department of Agriculture and Food said yesterday this was an indication of the positive trends in eradicating the disease.
After outbreaks in Britain, BSE was first identified here in 1989. Initially, less than 20 cases a year were recorded until 1996, when there was a dramatic increase in recorded cases which continued until last year.
The three recorded cases this week brought the number of cases identified so far this year to 71, confirming a continuing drop in the number of this year's cases.
This compares with 107 cases for the same period in 2003.
The animals found this year were from dairy herds in Cavan and Cork.
This week's cases were identified using both traditional passive surveillance and the active surveillance programme.
Under the active surveillance programme, testing of a proportion of fallen stock and cattle destined for human consumption was initiated in July 2000.
This was extended in January 2001 to test all cattle over 30 months destined for human consumption and all casualty animals.
Since July 2001, all fallen cattle have been tested. Over 2.05 million tests have been carried out up to the end of 2003 under the active surveillance programme. In addition, over 193,000 tests were carried out from January to April 2004.
A statement from the Department said the underlying trend remained positive and the increasing age profile of animals confirmed with the disease indicated enhanced controls were proving effective.
"The effectiveness of Ireland's BSE controls was recognised by the EU's Scientific Steering Committee which indicated, in a report on Ireland's BSE risk published in May 2000, that controls in this country were stable from 1996 onwards, very stable from 1997 onwards, and optimally stable since 1st January, 1998," concluded the statement from the Department.