THE brains from three more animals suspected of having BSE are being examined at the State Laboratories, the Department of Agriculture confirmed last night.
But the spokesman added that this was not unusual. What is important, he said, is whether the tests on the brains are positive.
"In recent months we have on average three times as many suspect brains for examination than BSE positive findings," he said.
He was speaking following the confirmation of four new cases of the disease on Wednesday, which will bring the total in the Republic to 133 since 1989. A widening of the current slaughter policy was also announced.
The Department will now slaughter the herds of origin of cows infected by Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy. Until recently the Department slaughtered and destroyed all animals in a herd where an infected beast is located.
The Department has already spent £13.5 million slaughtering 19,500 animals in herds where BSE cases have been confirmed, but this figure is likely to increase dramatically when the additional herds are added to the total.
The Department is hoping the latest figures will not further damage the beef industry, which has not recovered from the March 20th revelations in the House of Commons on a possible link between BSE and a new form of the human equivalent, CJD.
The statements devastated the beef markets inside and outside the EU. The key markets for Ireland Britain, France, Germany and Italy are unlikely to recover, leaving a large surplus of beef here and abroad.
Irish meat plants have tendered to put 3,500 tonnes of beef into EU intervention during the last two months as beef prices continue to fall at marts and factories. The EU beef management committee will decide on this today.
New compensation application forms will this week be distributed to Irish beef farmers, who are to be paid over £70 million for loss of earnings since the BSE crisis began.
However, the crisis has forced a radical rethink of the entire EU beef system and the Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, has ordered a total review of the scheme which may involve using funds from other areas, such as grain, to help beef farmers.
He has also proposed the compulsory slaughter of calves under 20 days old and a change in the intervention rules to allow animals of eight to nine months into the system.
But the Commissioner created mayhem in the European sheep markets when he said he was asking the Commission to ban tissue from the central nervous system of sheep because French research has shown the disease can be transmitted to sheep in laboratory conditions.
These statements may well have serious implications for the State's £200 million sheep industry, which had been getting the benefit of the dramatic decline in beef consumption.
Over the past week lamb prices have fallen from 106p per lb to 95p and at marts the price of a 40 lb lamb has dropped by up to £4.
The industry is hoping that French consumers, in particular, who take 70 per cent of the annual Irish export of 62,000 tonnes, will ignore the linkage between BSE and sheep and continue to take the Irish product.