THERE were eight new cases of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in February, according to the Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry yesterday.
The eight new cases bring the 1997 total to 19 and the Republic's total since 1989 to 208, making Ireland the state with the third highest rate of infection in Europe. The UK tops the league, with Switzerland second.
The new cases were confirmed in Kildare, Limerick, Cavan, Cork, Carlow, Tipperary, Meath and Clare. There were two five-year-old cows, one six-year-old, three seven-year-olds and animals aged eight and nine.
A Department of Agriculture spokesman said the figures seemed to show a decline on recent monthly totals. There had been 18 cases last November, 11 in December and 11 last month.
There was a dramatic rise in the number of cases of BSE in 1996 when the number of infected animals rose to 74 from 16 in 1995. The Egyptians stopped trading in live cattle and the Russians imposed a ban on beef from eight Irish counties.
The counties are Cork, Tipperary, Monaghan, Limerick, Cavan, Wexford, Meath and Donegal but the ban, which is to be reviewed later in the year, has not unduly, impacted on beef prices in the counties involved.
Earlier this week a veterinary delegation arrived in Ireland from Brussels to examine the controls which have been put in place to protect public health and to eradicate the disease.
An amended BSE eradication plan has been sent to Brussels by the Department which is seeking funding from the EU.
Since 1990, the Government has spent £17.5 million on BSE eradication. Ireland has a policy of destroying all animals in a herd where a BSE case has been found. To date this policy has uncovered only one new case of the disease.
However, it has involved the slaughter of 27,342 animals.
The disease is estimated to have cost the Irish economy nearly £500 million since the British government announced last March that there may be a link between eating BSE-infected meat and a new form of CJD in young people.