State reassures consumers as another BSE case found

THE Department of Agriculture and Food has re-assured consumers and foreign markets that Irish beef is among the safest in the world following the discovery of BSE in a herd in Limerick.

Officials yesterday confirmed BSE was found in a three and a half-year-old bull on a Limerick dairy farm. The bull is the youngest animal to contract the disease after stricter controls on animal feed were introduced in Ireland in 1996-97. Four other animals born in 1997 were detected with the disease earlier this year.

The bull was part of a herd slaughtered earlier this month after a nine-year-old Friesian cow was found to have BSE. An investigation is now underway to establish how the bull contracted the disease.