Bovine animals which react positively to either a TB or brucellosis test must, by law, be removed to an approved export premises for slaughter. The EU Directive 64/433 which legislates for intra-Community trade in fresh meat, requires that all such animals are given a detailed veterinary examination and in this regard my Department maintains a permanent veterinary presence at all export slaughter premises. However, due to the high frequency of testing only some of these animals will have developed clinical disease and a proportion will in fact be false positives to the tuberculin test. Each of the reactors is subject to a full ante and post mortem inspection, the results of which determine eligibility for entry into the food chain.
Where animals are either suspected of being affected by, or have been confirmed as cases of BSE the suspect herds are visited by both a veterinary inspector from the local district veterinary office, and a veterinary research officer from the Veterinary Research Laboratory.
The suspect animal is euthanased, a sample of the brain tissue is sent for testing, the entire carcase of BSE suspect animals are frozen and retained by this Department, pending their ultimate destruction. The herd in question is immediately placed under official restriction and quarantined.
An inventory of the herd and an initial epidemiological investigation is carried out. The course of the disease is monitored for a short while, following which, where BSE is not ruled out, suspects are slaughtered and the brains taken to the central Veterinary Research Laboratory for examination using both standard histology and immunocyto chemistry.