Disappointing BSE figures for January were issued yesterday, showing there were 14 cases of the disease, one more than in January 1999.
The figures come after the highest annual total on record in the Republic last year, when 95 cases were recorded in the national herd.
But while the January figures were high, the age profile of the cattle was moving in the right direction. None of the animals which developed bovine spongiform encephalopathy was younger than five years.
This would appear to indicate that controls to prevent new outbreaks of the disease have been successful, and the Department of Agriculture is predicting a falloff in cases in the coming year.
Two of the cows were aged eight; three were seven; five were six-year-olds; and the remaining four were aged five years, according to a Department spokesman.
Three of the infected animals came from farms in Cork, two were found on Monaghan farms, two in Wexford and two in Galway, and there was one case each in Cos Kilkenny, Limerick, Louth, Meath and Leitrim.
The Department said 10 of the animals came from dairy herds, with the rest from beef-producing suckler herds.
The January cases bring the total number of cases of the disease, first identified here in 1989, to 461 over the 10-year period.