US ‘mad cow’ to create Tipperary cash cow

An Irish company stands to double its turnover and create up to 80 jobs following the discovery of BSE, better known as “mad cow” disease, in the US.

Enfer Scientific, which is headquartered in Cashel, Co Tipperary and has a manufacturing facility in Newbridge, Co Kildare, is the developer of a test for the disease that delivers results in less than four hours and is already in use in the EU and Japan.

US pharmaceutical giant Abbott, which signed a marketing and distribution agreement with Enfer in 2001, has exclusive rights to sell the test outside Ireland and yesterday announced it had applied to the US government for a licence to sell the test in America.