Mad cow cases at record level

By Andrew Bushe

DUBLIN — The number of cases of mad cow disease is set to reach a record next month when the 2001 total of 246 cases is exceeded.

The Department of Agriculture has been detecting an average of seven new cases of BSE a week so far this year. Three infected cows discovered in Cork and Monaghan last week brought the 2002 total to 232 so far.

Normally, the number or cases detected rises significantly in the fall as a result of increased slaughtering.

The disease, which is linked to the fatal human equivalent brain disease, variant CJD disease, was first detected in Ireland 1989.

The Department says the increasing number of cases being discovered have largely resulted from a stepped up surveillance program.

The number of mad cow cases has been rising steadily in recent years. There were 145 in 2000 and 91 in 1999.

More than 367,000 animals were tested so far this year and 660,000 tests were carried out in 2001. All cattle over 30 months destined for human consumption and all casualty animals are now tested.

The department says the underlying trend remains positive and experts had advised that the disease will peak next year and then begin to fall.

“We will have higher figures this year, but our experts tell us that is the way they see the pattern,” a spokesman said. “After next year it should tail off significantly. . . . The increasing age profile of animals confirmed with the disease indicates that the enhanced controls introduced in 1996 and early 1997 are proving effective.”

Increasingly, the number of cows being discovered with the disease are getting older but, for the first time this year, two 5-year-old animals were diagnosed. They were born after the controls were introduced on feedstuffs in 1996. Previously, all cases had been discovered in older animals born in 1996 or before.

It is thought the cases may have arisen as a result of the animal being fed old contaminated feedstuff.

The department has ruled out a targeted cull of older animals in mad cow disease “hot spots” around the country, which would have involved the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of cattle. A targeted cull in counties with large concentrations of the disease would have accelerated a disease-free status for the country. It might also have boosted beef sales by reassuring domestic consumers and helping to persuade foreign customers to reopen their markets to Irish exports.

The BSE subcommittee of the Food Safety Authority studied a variety of scenarios involving possible different sized culls. However, the idea was dropped as it was felt that controls to protect the consumer were sufficient and the cull would have involved taking out several hundred thousand animals to eradicate a small number of BSE cases.