Written Answers. - Bovine Diseases.
Jim O'Keeffe
Question:
19
Mr. J. O'Keeffe
asked the
Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development
the position in relation to BSE; the number of BSE positive animals for each of the past three years; and the likely indications for the future in this regard.
[4914/02]
Some 49 cases of BSE have been confirmed in 2002 to date up to 7 February. In addition one positive cohort animal has been detected. There were 91 confirmed cases of BSE in 1999, 145 in 2000 and 242 in 2001.
A targeted active surveillance programme for BSE began in 2000 with the testing of a proportion of fallen stock and a random survey of cattle eligible for human consumption. This programme was extended in 2001. Since 1 July 2001, all cattle presented for slaughter over 30 months of age and all fallen and casualty animals over 24 months of age are tested for BSE.
Of the 145 cases in 2000, 138 were detected by passive surveillance. In 2001, a lesser number, 123 cases of the total of 242 were detected by passive surveillance although a greater number of animals were notified as BSE suspects on the basis of clinical signs in 2001 – 484 – than in 2000 – 354. The entire increase in 2001 is attributable to more intensive active surveillance, particularly among fallen animals which would not, in any event, have entered the human food chain.
I am satisfied that a comprehensive range of measures is in place to protect consumers and for the control and eradication of BSE, including compulsory notification of the disease, the depopulation of herds, the tracing and slaughter of birth cohorts and progeny of the infected animal, a ban on the use of meat and bone meal for farmed animals, the removal and destruction of specified risk materials from ruminant animals and the rapid testing of animals over 30 months at meat plants.
Moreover, unlike many other member states whose BSE controls were tightened up at the end of 2000, none of the positive animals identified in Ireland to date have been born after July 1996. This indicates that the enhanced controls introduced in this country in 1996 are working, and that the disease should begin to work its way out of the national herd as older animals leave the system.
