A milling company has been fined £1,500 under the BSE prevention regulations for the possession and use of poultry offal meal without a licence.
In a second case, also before Judge John Brophy at Dunshaughlin Court yesterday, a farmer who fed turkey feed to calves on his farm was fined £750.
Shackleton Milling Ltd, Kingstown House, Dun Laoghaire, pleaded guilty to incorporating poultry offal meal in feedstuffs for animals at its premises on Ashbourne Industrial Estate and possession of control of the meal without a licence.
Both summonses were under Article 6 of the Diseases of Animals (BSE) Amendment Order No 2, 1996.
Mr Tony Adams, a veterinary inspector with the Department of Agriculture, said poultry offal meal was produced by rendering down the waste, including feathers, after slaughtering poultry. Millers required a licence to use it in animal feed.
When he inspected the premises at Ashbourne on January 26th last year he found this meal present although the company did not have a licence to use it.
He interviewed the managing director of the company the following day and he was satisfied that he did not know a licence was required. The company had applied for the required licence in the meantime.
Judge Brophy fined the company the maximum of £1,500 on each summons, mitigated to £750 in each case in light of the guilty plea.
Mr James Collins snr, Barstown House, Dunboyne, admitted feeding 10 bags of turkey pellets as part of a mix to calves on his farm at Ballymurphy, Dunshaughlin, between October 6th, 1999 and January 15th, 2000. He said he was unaware this was forbidden.
Judge Brophy fined him £1,500, again mitigated to £750.