RTE.net
'Mad cow' disease is found in goat
Friday, 28 January 2005 22:33
The first case of BSE or mad cow disease in animals other than cattle has been discovered after a French goat slaughtered in 2002 tested positive.
The disease was widespread in the 1990s all over Europe. However the number of cattle testing positive for the disease in Ireland in the past number of years has fallen dramatically.
The European Commission is to investigate if this latest incident is isolated.
RTE.net
First reported case of BSE in USA
Tuesday, 23 December 2003 22:53
The United States has reported its first suspected case of Mad Cow Disease or BSE in Washington state.
In a separate development, earlier the Department of Agriculture and Food published final results for the number of cattle deaths from Mad Cow Disease or BSE in 2003.
There was one death in the last week in Co Cavan, bringing the total number of confirmed cases for the year so far to 183.
That is a 43% reduction on last year, when there were 333 confirmed cases.
First reported case of BSE in USA
RTE.net
Total of BSE cases in 2004 rises to 121
Friday, 26 November 2004 15:07
There were seven cases of BSE during the past week, bringing the total so far this year to 121.
That compares with 170 for the same period last year and 313 in 2002.
However, the authorities are still trying to establish the age of one case discovered this week.
Department of Agriculture officials are examining the tag and the identity number of the animal involved, a cow in Kerry.
The other cases this week were in Wexford, Kerry, Westmeath, Kildare and two in Cavan. All of these animals were nine years or older.
Total of BSE cases in 2004 rises to 121
RTE.net
Cases of BSE continued to fall in 2006
Friday, 22 December 2006 22:14
Figures out this afternoon indicate that the incidence in Ireland of the cattle brain disease, BSE, continues to decline.
The Minister for Agriculture, Mary Coughlan, has welcomed the fall-off in the disease, which raised consumer concern about beef for several years and caused havoc to meat exports.
She said she is pleased that the underlying trend remains positive and that the Governments controls are proving effective.
During the 1990s and into this decade, BSE was a huge worry for farmers and consumers in Ireland.
This disease, which destroys brain and nerve system of cattle, first became widespread in Britain. But by the late 1980s it had arrived in Ireland.
Many counties immediately stopped taking our beef exports - which plunged agriculture here into crisis as 90% of our beef has to be sold abroad.
There were under 20 outbreaks a year until 1995, until the figures began to rise dramatically with about 150 cases in the millennium year, reaching 333 cases in 2002, the worst year ever.
But the figures have been dropping significantly since, to 41 in 2006.
The Government spent hundreds of millions on measures to contain the disease.
Fears that eating contaminated meat could affect people were confirmed a decade ago when BSE was linked to a human form of the disease, variant CJD.
A recent report suggested that four people in the Republic have died from new variant CJD in the past decade. Some of them had lived abroad for long periods and may have become infected there.
However, meat exports have well recovered from the crisis. But Government measures continue, seeking to reassure consumers and protect important export outlets. The expensive slaughtering out of an entire herd when even one animal contracts the disease still goes on.
All animals over 30 months are still being tested for BSE at abattoirs. Specified risk material, such as spinal cords, is removed from all cattle slaughtered.
Although there is far less public concern about BSE nowadays, there is relief in many quarters that the disease seems to be on the way out.
Cases of BSE continued to fall in 2006
RTE.net
BSE found in four-year-old cow
Friday, 29 July 2005 17:01
The cattle brain disease, BSE, has been discovered in another four-year old cow.
It is the second case involving a cow born in 2001. The latest case involves an animal from a dairy herd in Co Monaghan.
It had been hoped that animals born after 1997 would not become infected with BSE because regulations to prevent the spread of the disease were tightened significantly around that time.
Most of the 1,500 BSE cases in Ireland have been blamed on contaminated animal feed.
The Department of Agriculture had predicted that a small number of cases might involve animals born after 1997. So far, 14 cases have involved animals born since that time.
However, the overall trend is downward. The total number of cases this year is 42. This compares with 77 cases for the equivalent period in 2004.
There were 119 cases for the equivalent period in 2003, and 211 cases for the equivalent period in 2002.
A second case this week involved an 11-year-old dairy cow in Kerry.
BSE found in four-year-old cow
Also see:
State tests will seek cause of Portsmouth woman's death (Possibly variant CJD or Mad Cow Disease)
I spent a several weeks in England around 1992 and had mostly beef to eat. I wonder how much time has to pass before you can consider yourself in the clear?