BSE tests on cow in O’Keeffe’s dairy herd

THE results of BSE tests being carried out on an eight-year old cow in former Minister of State Ned O’Keeffe’s dairy herd are not expected until later this week.

Mr O’Keeffe, a Fianna Fáil TD for Cork East, said an investigation by the Department of Agriculture and Food is taking place after a cow on a leased outside farm fell down. The investigation had not yet concluded. A movement restriction order has been placed on the 130 animals in the herd near Mitchelstown, Co Cork, a normal practice pending the outcome of the laboratory tests.

Each Friday, the department of issues a list of cases registered during that week, detailing the age and county of the infected animal and whether it is from a dairy or a suckler herd.

There were no BSE cases recorded last week, but there were 12 cases in the previous two weeks, including three in Co Cork. None of the infected animals was born after Ireland’s ban on feeding meat and bonemeal to cattle became operative in 1996 and early 1997.

A total of 232 BSE outbreaks have been discovered in the State so far this year, mainly due to increased surveillance and testing by the department. There were 242 cases in the whole of last year.

Despite the surge in the number of cases, the underlying trend remains positive, according to the department, and the increasing age profile of animals confirmed with the disease indicates that enhanced controls are proving effective. Experts believe the number of cases will peak shortly and then begin to wane as older cows among 7.5 million cattle in 138,000 herds nationally are removed from the system.

Labour TD for Cork East Joe Sherlock said there was public concern in the Mitchelstown area over the suspected BSE outbreak in Deputy

O’Keeffe’s family dairy herd. It was in the public interest that the matter be clarified straight away.

It would also be in the long-term interest of farmers as well as the public, whose health must be protected, to have BSE eradicated once and for all from the national herd, he said.

Deputy O’Keeffe resigned as Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture last year after the Public Offices Commission decided to investigate whether he had breached the Ethics in Public Office Act.

Following a hearing, it found he had unintentionally breached the Act by not disclosing in a Dáil debate in late 2000 that his family farm had a licence from the department to feed meat and bonemeal to pigs and in not declaring the interests of his wife and son in the family firm.

He was later suspended from the Dáil for 10 days. Feeding MBM to cattle was banned in Ireland in 1990 and the controls tightened in 1996-1997, but feeding it to pigs and poultry remained legal under licence until the European Commission banned the practice early last year following a rise in BSE cases in some member states. An extensive farmer and a TD for the past 19 years, Deputy O’Keeffe was re-elected in last May’s general election.