BSE identified in six-year-old animal

A case of BSE has been confirmed in a six- year-old animal born after tighter feed controls were introduced.

The Department of Agriculture and Food said the confirmation of isolated cases in animals born after the introduction of enhanced animal feed controls and the ban on the use of specified risk materials in 1996/1997 was not unexpected.

An epidemiological investigation into the origins of the particular case in a Meath dairy herd has already begun.