Report issued on bse case
THE Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers' Association (ICSA) has warned that the confirmation of a BSE case in Co. Louth must not be used as an excuse to drive down price for farmers around the country, including Mayo.
ICSA president Patrick Kent stated: “Farmers have seen a welcome tightening of prices in recent days, and meat processors cannot use this result, an isolated one-off case, as a stick to hammer farmers with.
“It is likely that the case will have little or no impact on Irish exports, and we don’t expect to see any impact on farmgate prices either.”
Today's final test results confirm the recent suspected case of BSE in Co. Louth to be an isolated case of 'classical' BSE in a single animal, according to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
In line with normal protocols, the department identified all animals potentially exposed to the BSE agent that caused this incident - i.e. those born and reared on the birth-farm one year either side of the birth date of the positive animal, and her progeny. These have been slaughtered, excluded from the food and feed chains, and tested.
The epidemiological investigation has confirmed that: all 63 cohort animals and four progeny slaughtered and disposed of have tested negative for BSE; the confirmed case is an isolated case in a single animal; both the dam and grand-dam of the infected animal tested negative for BSE at slaughter, and therefore vertical transmission is not considered to be a factor in this case; while the grand-dam of the positive animal was imported, this is not of any significance in epidemiological terms; and no concerns arise regarding the integrity of the commercial feed supply chain or the effectiveness of the feed control systems.
These results are now being advised to the EU Commission and to the OIE. It is expected that the OIE will reassign ‘controlled risk’ status to Ireland, recognising the robust control systems in place which identified this once-off case and which will continue to underpin the safe trade in products from Ireland. The control system that has brought BSE under control is still in place to protect human and animal health, and is deemed to be effective by the OIE.