TIGHT restrictions in Northern Ireland on the movement of cattle born before 1996 to ensure no BSE-infected animals enter the food chain will not be introduced in the Republic.
Earlier this week the British government placed restrictions on these animals following an investigation into whether or not there was an illegal trade in them.
Recent cases have included a Cumbrian cattle dealer who was sentenced to 10 months in prison for sending an overage animal to slaughter for human consumption.
It is illegal to slaughter pre-1996 animals, which may have been fed animal proteins, for food, in the UK under rules designed to prevent the spread of BSE to humans.
On Tuesday last the North’s Minister for Agriculture, Michelle Gildernew, also imposed restrictions on the movement of pre-1996 born animals, which are banned from the food chain there.
She said this was a legacy of BSE put in place because they were born before feed controls to combat BSE were considered to be effective. She said there were 3,660 such animals in the North on 2,250 holdings.
“I regret that, due to the risk of illegal trade in cattle born before August 1996, it is necessary to prevent such cattle being moved off their current holdings,” she said.
Asked if similar restrictions would be imposed here, the Department of Agriculture said that because of the much lower incidence of BSE in the Republic, the traceability system and effective measures to protect public health, such controls were not warranted here.
It said the BSE situation here was very different from that in the UK, where there had been 183,309 cases, 99.9 per cent of which came from animals born before August 1st, 1996.
That was when the British government introduced an enhanced feed ban, which meant cattle would not be exposed to contaminated feed.