First-quarter figures for BSE in Ireland continue to show a downward trend, with no cases of the cattle disease recorded in the State this week.
The number of cases diagnosed so far this year is 16. The corresponding figure for last year is 19 cases.
The total number of cases in 2005 was 69. This compares with 126 cases in 2004, which represents a year-on-year reduction of 44 per cent. The total number of cases was 186 in 2003, and 333 in 2002.
Meanwhile the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has said that, despite alarm over avian flu, the battle against BSE was being won.
"In 2005 just 474 animals died of BSE around the world, compared with 878 in 2004 and 1,646 in 2003, and against a peak of several tens of thousands in 1992," it said, quoting data from the World Animal Health Organisation.
However, the Rome-based UN agency warned that the battle against BSE was not fully over.
"It is quite clear that BSE is declining and that the measures introduced to stop the disease are effective. But further success depends on our continuing to apply those measures worldwide," said FAO animal production expert Andrew Speedy.
The organisation is pushing countries to adopt a tracking system that allows animals to be identified from birth to consumption, a system already in place in the EU.