NO IRISH beef processing company has installed the revolutionary postmortem screening test for BSE developed by Enfer Scientific Ltd in Dublin.

Ms Riona Sayers of Enfer told a conference on the disposal of animal byproducts in the food and agricultural industries, organised by the Institute of Engineers, that the results of trials by the Department of Agriculture will soon be released.

She said foreign based beef processing companies had expressed interest in the test, which can prove to the satisfaction of the consumer that a carcase is free of BSE.

She said the test could be adapted to allow it detect the presence of the disease in live animals, but at present the company was working on the postmortem test which is capable of testing 1,000 samples per day on a single testing system running to full capacity.

Asked if the experimental tests carried out in six Irish meat plants, involving over 8,000 animals, had uncovered any cases of BSE, Ms Sayers said she could give no details of the findings - this was a matter for the Department.

The acting deputy chief veterinary officer at the Department of Agriculture in Northern Ireland, Mr Liam McNeill, told the conference there had been only 16 cases of BSE so far this year in Northern Ireland.

Since it was first identified in the North, there had been a total of 1,754 cases. These rose each year from three in 1988 to a peak of 487 in 1993 and since then had declined to 82 in 1996.

He said he was confident the disease will be eliminated from the Northern Ireland herd.

In the meantime, the North has the problem of dealing with the disposal of byproducts and plants have been designated to handle the materials. Meat and bone meal are buried in landfill sites.

Meat and bone meal rendered from animals over 30 months and from animals at risk are stored in the North until they can be incinerated in Britain.

Mr David McDowell, of the Federation of Irish Renderers, said his industry had been the subject of a great deal of media misinformation.