Stephen Cadogan: Blip in Ireland’s huge BSE elimination progress

Barring unforeseen discoveries in the painstaking investigations of a suspected BSE case on a Co Louth farm, there seems little reason why the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) should alter its recent decision to recognise Ireland as having a negligible risk for BSE.

If the case is confirmed, it is only a blip in the huge progress made in Ireland over many years towards eradicating this disease from the national cattle herd.

Contaminated meat and bone meal in feed triggered the disease in the UK in the late 1980s. It peaked in the UK at 37,280 in 1992, with about 180,000 cases in total (and 177 recorded cases of variant CJD in humans, likely to be due to eating beef).