The special form to be used by farmers to offer their cattle for slaughter under the EU destruct scheme will be available from Department of Agriculture offices from this morning. The uptake of the forms will give some indication of the likely number of animals which will be presented for slaughter for destruction on Monday at the 18 designated beef-processing plants across the State.
It was not certain late last night whether all plants will be in a position to proceed with the scheme, which was sanctioned by the EU to take surplus supplies of animals over 30 months off the market and to restore consumer confidence. The factories are unhappy with some of the regulations, especially those which could mean the closure of killing lines for long periods if an animal, presented for the alternative BSE test scheme, should prove positive.
The Irish-developed Enfer test result for BSE is expected to be available less than five hours after slaughter. If an animal is tested positive, other animals processed with the same equipment will have to be withdrawn from the food chain.
According to the Department of Agriculture, factories say they have the capacity to kill and test 15,000 animals every week in addition to killing a further 25,000 for destruction. The only beef market which held firm during the crisis was in Britain where the disease was first identified. Demand for Irish beef from Britain drove up the price being offered for under-30 month cattle here this week. A number of Irish factories killed animals for the British market at a price of more than 92p a lb. and industry sources say there has been some recovery in Italian, German and French consumption.
The beef industry here has confirmed that it will be seeking compensation from either the Government or the EU for large stocks of beef it has accumulated since the collapse of the European markets and bans on Irish beef in Egypt and other non-EU countries.
The EU has estimated that the destruction scheme, which is planned for six months, will involve the slaughter of more than two million animals. However, some European countries are reluctant to engage in a major cull.
The French authorities want to limit the cull by testing 20,000 animals each week but they have come under severe pressure following the discovery of eight new cases of the disease yesterday. In Germany, the Health Minister, Ms Andrea Fischer, wants to extend tests for the disease to all slaughtered cattle over 24 months old.