Department rejects UK projections on vCJD

The Department of Agriculture has disputed a British scientific report which claims Irish consumers are at greater risk of eating BSE-infected meat than consumers in the UK or France.

The study, published by the British Food Standards Agency, claims that the risk of eating meat contaminated with BSE in Ireland is about 220 times greater than in Britain, because more infected cattle have been slaughtered here.

However, the Department "disagrees fundamentally" with the findings of the report, a spokesman said last night. "There are lies, damn lies and statistics. You can stick things into a mathematical model and come up with anything. The evidence doesn't support what this report is saying."

Dr Patrick Wall, the chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, said the risks for Irish and British consumers both fell within acceptable limits.

The study estimates that 22,000 Irish cattle were infected with BSE between 1985 and 1996. This compares with almost one million in Britain since the start of the BSE epidemic. In 2000, it estimates, 346 infected animals were slaughtered for consumption here and 159 were within 12 months of clinical onset of the disease. This compares to only one in Britain and 12 in France.

The report assumes that the disease was significantly underreported in Ireland in the early years. Its author, Ms Christl Donnelly, of the department of infectious disease epidemiology at Imperial College, concedes that the level of under-reporting is difficult to gauge.

However, she says that if it persisted up to last year the true size of the "Irish epidemic" would be even greater than estimated in the study.

The reason the study estimates a higher incidence of BSE in Ireland is that rules preventing older animals from entering the food chain were not applied here until this year.

The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, has estimated that the cost of slaughtering animals at risk of BSE could reach £140 million.

So far, 95 confirmed and suspected cases of vCJD, which is linked to eating meat contaminated with BSE, have been reported in Britain. There has only been one confirmed case in the Republic, a woman who spent most of her life in Britain.

The study can be accessed at: www.bsereview.org.uk