DNA testing on meat

Irish authorities have confirmed the country’s first case of BSE for two years - but insisted there was no risk to consumers.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) said tests confirmed a five year-old dairy cow that died on a farm in county Louth was infected with “classical BSE”.

The department stressed the animal was not sold for slaughter and did not enter the food chain – but had been identified during standard surveillance testing of fallen animals in early June.

All other animals from the farm potentially exposed to BSE had been “traced, slaughtered and excluded from the food chain”, and none tested positive for the disease, it added.

Feed supplied to the farm was also tested, but authorities found no traces of meat or bone meal.

“The investigation has not identified anything to distinguish this case from the other cases of classical BSE that have been seen in Ireland or elsewhere,” said a DAFM statement.

The discovery comes just weeks after Ireland was recognised by the World Animal Health Organisation (OIE) as having “negligible risk’ for BSE - which Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Simon Coveney said would be a “huge boost for beef trade”.

DAFM has informed the relevant national and institutional organisations of the positive BSE result, and said it would liaise with trading partners.

Irish Farmers Association president Eddie Downey said export and home markets had reacted to the news in a “calm and balanced manner”.

He added consumers could be reassured about the “robustness of the food safety controls in place in Ireland”.

Ireland is the largest supplier of beef to the UK, accounting for around 70% of total imports, according to Quality Meat Scotland (QMS).