Seven cases of BSE have been disclosed this week, bringing the total number of cases for 2001 to 242, according to figures released today by the Department of Agriculture.
It is the highest figure ever recorded in Ireland, over 100 more than last year.
The Department of Agriculture said the increased number of cases was not a cause for worry, but was merely due to more successful detection measures.
Five of this week’s cases were identified by means of traditional passive surveillance and the other two were identified under the increased active surveillance programme. Almost 668,000 tests have been carried out this year.
According to a statement released by the Department of Agriculture today, "the underlying trend in relation to the number of BSE cases disclosed remains favourable.
"To date no animals born after 1996 have been detected with BSE and an ever increasing proportion of infected animals are six years of age or older," the statement said.