The National Advisory Committee on CJD may recommend that surgical instruments used to remove tonsils not be reused, to protect patients from vCJD. Britain has introduced this measure.
Dr Michael Farrell, consultant neurologist at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, said this would be discussed at the next committee meeting.
He also told a consultative forum on BSE, organised by Fine Gael, that there had only been only one case of vCJD in the Republic, of a woman who had spent many years in Britain.
Dr John Griffin of the veterinary epidemiology unit at the Veterinary College, University College, Dublin, identified BSE "hotspots" in Ireland. He said there were clusters of cases in Cavan-Monaghan, Wexford, Limerick and parts of Cork, nearly a third of them since 1998 in Cavan-Monaghan.
He said pig and poultry production, which involved feeding meat-and-bonemeal until it was banned last month, was concentrated in these two counties. Similar clusters had been found in similar areas in Britain.
Dr Griffin said if there was to be a cull of older cows they should be five to seven years old, as that age group had the highest number of cases.
BSE infection in younger animals which should not have been exposed to contaminated meat-and-bonemeal was dropping, and there was a lower incidence in older animals.
"The overall figures indicate that the level of infection in Irish herds is declining, despite the increased numbers reported. This is because of higher surveillance," he said.
Yesterday the Department of Agriculture announced that only two cases of BSE had been diagnosed in the last week, in a seven-year-old cow in Limerick and a six-year-old in Meath.
This brings the number of cases in the last four weeks to 19, and the total since the disease was first identified here in 1989 to 615. Last year there were 149 cases. There were 95 cases in 1999; 83 in 1998; 80 in 199; and 74 in 1996.
The former president of the Irish Farmers' Association, Mr Alan Gillis, called for the removal of older cattle and for increased inspection at all levels of the industry to eliminate the disease.
Mr Michael Kilcoyne, chairman of the Consumers' Association of Ireland, called for an examination of all sites where BSE-infected animals were buried before the Department changed its policy on this.
Mr Derek Deane, chairman of the IFA's national livestock committee, said he was appalled at the report that some meatprocessors and traders had imported cheap German beef.
"At a time when the entire Irish beef industry is on its knees, it is incomprehensible that a small number of greedy meat-processors would decide to import cheap German product, just to make a fast buck," he said.