Ireland's national surveillance systems for gathering information on animal and human diseases is weak, the new chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland said yesterday. Dr Patrick J. Wall told the Agricultural Science Association (ASA) conference Ireland could experience an outbreak of the E Coli 0157 food poisoning which caused 20 deaths in Scotland last year.
In his hard-hitting address to the agricultural science graduates who work mainly in the farming and food areas, he said that with newly-emerging agents such as BSE and E Coli 0157 there was no room for complacency.
"We have a situation at the present time where, in the Republic of Ireland, we are unable to fully identify the key food poisoning pathogens," he said. These included emerging stains of salmonella and drug-resistant pathogens.
He said testing for these new pathogens has to be done in the UK, which was unsatisfactory, especially as the results were returned to different laboratories in the Republic and not collated in a central location. "In the light of emerging problems such as BSE and E Coli 0157, we need to examine our traditional approach to meat inspection from abattoirs to butchers shops.
"We need to address any weaknesses currently existing and be aware that in the changing environment, controls that are adequate today may not be adequate tomorrow," he said.
Mr Donal Carey, Teagasc's director of operations, predicted that three out of four farmers are likely to be part-time within the next 20 years. However, he believed about 124,000 farm households will remain into the next century. Senator Feargal Quinn said that anyone who thinks that the current interest in food safety is all due to BSE is fundamentally misreading the situation. Because of it, he said, customer attitude to food products will never be the same. Building confidence could not be done by bluffing or by crude propaganda.
Mr Philip Maher from AIB Cork was elected president of the ASA for the coming year.