Ireland has highest BSE safety rating
He said it reflected the huge progress made over many years in eradicating this disease from the national cattle herd.
“BSE had caused very considerable disruption to trade in the beef sector in the past and the measures taken both to protect public health and to eradicate the disease had imposed very considerable costs on the beef sector,” he said. Mr Coveney said the next step in the process is to give practical and legal effect to the decision at EU level.
He indicated this would allow his department to engage with competent authorities in third countries with a view to agreeing simplified trade certification conditions over time.
He said the effect of the decision will be to significantly reduce the list of materials derived from bovines which have to be disposed of as specified risk materials. It is estimated that the potential value of this change to the meat processing sector will be of the order of €25m per annum.
However, the real benefit to the beef industry will be market access and new trade opportunities for Ireland, he said. The decision was described by the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association as hugely significant and positive.
John Comer, president, said that to be designated a “negligible risk” — the highest possible status — a country must have had no indigenous BSE case in an animal born in the last 11 years.
