THE IRISH beef industry has received a boost with confirmation that BSE levels are so low that cattle under six years will not have to be tested for the disease.
The EU decision to allow this change will save producers an estimated €1.7 million and arises from the fact that only one case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was found last year.
The change will come into effect from July 1st, and will replace the regulation which requires all animals entering the food chain over 30 months to be tested for the disease. The move will mean 85,000 cattle going through the system will not have to be tested when slaughtered.
The Irish Farmers Association’s health project team chairman, John Waters, said the move would save farmers €1.7 million, adding that reduced levels of testing over the past two years had meant savings of €11.7 million.
Mr Waters said only one case of the disease had been identified in Ireland last year. He said based on the progress being made and the controls put in place, the next step must be to remove all animals born since 1997 from the test requirement, which would result in savings of €5 million.
Ireland was badly hit by the fallout from the BSE crisis in Britain, where the disease was first identified in the mid-1980s. The linking of consumption of BSE-contaminated beef to vCJD in humans led to a dramatic fall in beef demand.
Ireland adopted a slaughter-all policy, which meant all cattle from farms where the disease was found were slaughtered and their carcases rendered and this material destroyed. The policy cost millions of euros but saved the sector.
When British scientists eventually discovered minuscule amounts of cattle feed contaminated with BSE material could spread the disease, the segregation of cattle feed from pig and poultry rations in milling plants led to a dramatic decline in cases.
So-called “specified risk material” – organs from cattle which carry the infection – are routinely removed from all carcasses and this practice will continue to protect human health.