The elimination of BSE in the Republic was set back further yesterday with the announcement that 13 cases of the disease were recorded in January.
This is two more than in the corresponding month last year and brings to 365 the total recorded in the Republic since the disease was first identified in 1989.
The January 1999 cases were found in three herds in Monaghan, three in Cavan, two in Meath and one each in Clare, Kerry, Wexford, Leitrim and Cork.
According to a Department of Agriculture spokesman, the youngest animals detected were five years old, three of the cows were six years old and the oldest was nine.
Five of the herds were for beef rearing, and the remainder concerned dairy herds. Three of the herds were very large: one Meath animal came from a herd of 574, the Clare herd has 302 and the Cork herd 297 animals.
It has been Government policy to slaughter and destroy all animals in a herd in which BSE has been found. This continues for beef-marketing reasons even though there is no evidence that the disease can be transmitted from one animal to another.
The Department spokesman said the January figure was not unexpected. BSE cases rise in the late winter and early spring when cows are stressed in the calving period.
In Brussels yesterday the EU's Beef Management Committee accepted a tender for 2,430 tonnes of Irish beef for EU intervention over the next fortnight. This will take 7,500 bullocks off the market.