With only one more weekly reading of results on animals being tested for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), the 2004 figure has shown a drop of over 30 per cent last year.
A single case identified last week in Cork brought the total so far this year to 124 cases which compares favourably with the 184 cases recorded this time last year.
The 32.6 per cent decline is a continuation of the drop experienced in 2003. The figures for the previous year, the highest on record, was 333 cases.
Since the disease was identified here in 1989, there have been 1,480 cases found in the national herd. A major increase in cases occurred when in 2000 the European Union ordered the testing of animals which died on farms, casualty animals and all cattle over 30 months old being slaughtered in meat plants.
The majority of cases each year since then have been found in sick or dying animals not destined for the food chain - the so called "fallen animals".
Last year, for instance, 106 of the 184 cases were from fallen stock. In 2002, 183 of the 333 cases came from this category.
Testing in factories for the disease in animals over 30 months old has shown 19 cases so far this year.
Last year there were 31 cases detected in factories and in the previous two years, 34 cases each year. There has been a huge level of testing for the disease in the last few years with over 2.05 million tests carried out to the end of last year under this active surveillance programme.
A further 520,000 tests were carried out from January to the end of October this year.
Fewer cases are being found in the traditional way, so called passive surveillance, on Irish farms. So far this year there have been 29 cases found on farms and last year the figure was 40 and the previous year, 108.
Department of Agriculture and Food scientists are confident that the disease can be eradicated and point to the drop in numbers over recent years.