There was only one new case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) discovered this week, bringing to 168 the number of cases found so far this year.
The animal involved was a eight-year-old suckler cow from a Co Monaghan herd and she was identified on a farm by traditional means.
Under the active surveillance programme which began in July 2000, whereby all casualty and fallen animals are tested for the disease and the testing of all animals aged more than 30 months, over 660,000 tests were carried out in 2001 and 257,000 so far this year.
The Department of Agriculture and Food stressed the underlying trend remains positive.
It says the increasing age profile of animals confirmed with the disease is evidence that the enhanced controls introduced in 1996 and early 1997 are proving effective.
The incidence of the disease is expected to decline as older animals work their way out of the national herd.
The department takes the view that the momentum towards eradicating the disease from the national herd is being maintained and believes that prospects remain positive.
Meanwhile as Israel reported it was examining what may be its first case of BSE, Japan said it will send two agriculture officials to the Netherlands to investigate animal fat products made there in a bid to track down the source of BSE in Japan.
The two officials left Japan at the weekend to stay in the Netherlands until Saturday, the agriculture ministry said.
"They will visit one or several factories there", while having talks with the livestock hygiene authorities, a ministry official said.
Japan has found four cases of BSE since September.
All the cows were found to have been fed with the same milk substitute made from Dutch-made animal fat products.