Seventeen cases of BSE have been reported throughout the country this month, it was revealed today. A change in Government policy means that the figures will be announced every week instead of every month.
Over the past four weeks, four incidences of the disease were discovered in Cavan and Cork, while Limerick, Longford and Tipperary also reported cases of the disease.
None of the animals involved were born after 1996 when tighter controls on animal feeds were introduced.
Meanwhile food safety experts in Northern Ireland are seeking an investigation into the discovery in Newry, Co. Down, of a consignment of contaminated beef.
The delivery came from Germany and contained remnants of spinal cord.
In the US, donations from Irish blood donors are being banned by the government in a measure to prevent the human version of BSE, new-variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), from entering the food chain.
Irish, French and Portuguese donors have been singled out because of a relatively high incidence of BSE in each of the countries, the Food and Drugs Administration has said.
One case of vCJD has been reported here to date.
US experts, however, have said that anyone living in any one of the countries for at least ten years from 1980 onwards, should be banned from donating blood for the time being.