Dr Mary Upton, the Labour Party spokeswoman on food safety and consumer affairs, has withdrawn comments she made yesterday linking the consumption of milk with vCJD, the human form of BSE.
Dr Upton, who is a scientist, urged the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, to consider "as a matter of urgency" banning the sale of milk from cattle born before 1996.
However, following assurances from the Food and Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) that there was no "scientific basis" for the claim, Dr Upton withdrew her remarks in a statement this morning.
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"BSE and vCJD are areas about which we still know very little and there is a need for intensified research and study, but I accept the reassurance from the Food Safety Authority of Ireland that there is no established scientific link between vCJD and consumption of milk," she said.
"It was not my intention to create alarm among consumers or to create problems for the industry. My concerns arose from a report published by the FSAI that, of the anticipated 400 future clinical cases of BSE, 70 per cent will be from dairy cows.
"Food safety is a critical issue for both Irish consumers and for farmers. A high standard food safety regime is in the interest of both sectors."
The FSAI said yesterday that research in the UK, at EU level and by the authority itself, showed there was no valid link between BSE infection and milk.
The FSAI's director of consumer protection, Mr Pat O'Mahony, said the 400 older cows believed to be incubating BSE would not be in the "latter stages" of the disease.
The authority's report had concluded there was no food safety benefit from culling older cattle, as any cases of BSE infection would be picked up at slaughtering stage under recently introduced screening procedures. He added: "there would be no additional protection from banning milk".