Policy of culling entire herd following BSE outbreaks is dropped
It is to be replaced with a partial depopulation regime, Agriculture and Food Minister Mary Coughlan announced yesterday in a major policy change.
The policy that saw all cattle in a herd killed if BSE was confirmed in even one of the animals has applied since the disease was first diagnosed in Ireland in 1989.
It was introduced as a national measure to meet export market and certification requirements, for beef and dairy products, and to protect individual farmers who were finding it difficult to sell produce.
There have been 1,568 BSE cases in Ireland. Numbers peaked in 2002 with 333 cases, but have since fallen dramatically.
There were just 69 outbreaks last year, and this year so far there have been 16 cases compared with 20 in the same period in 2005. Ms Coughlan said the policy change had been informed by a number of issues.
These included the continuing and significant decline in the incidence of the disease in Ireland, and the comprehensive range of effective control measures in place. She said the Food Safety Authority of Ireland had indicated that, on the basis that all the other measures continued, there is no increased risk to consumer health arising from the ending of the whole-herd depopulation policy.
"We continue to operate a very robust control regime, which is designed to provide maximum public health protection and consumer confidence," she said.
"We cannot and will not ever compromise on the issue of food safety and consumers can be assured that nothing changes in that regard as a consequence of the announcement."
Ms Coughlan said the partial depopulation regime being introduced will involve the removal of the BSE positive animal(s), birth and feed cohorts and the progeny, with compensation paid at market value.
IFA president Padraig Walshe said the decision was an important step towards ending the BSE problem.
"The total herd slaughter policy caused huge hardship for thousands of farm families over the past 16 years and very valuable genetic material was lost with the slaughter of some of the country's best pedigree herds," he said.
