Department of Agriculture officials investigating a BSE case became suspicious when they found two old punch-holes in the right ear of the infected cow, Cork Circuit Criminal Court heard.
Veterinary inspectors gave evidence yesterday at the trial of Mr Andrew and Mr Brian Wilson, of Bandon and Dunmanway, Co Cork, who are charged with making a fraudulent BSE compensation claim for the slaughter of cattle on the farm of James Sutton.
Sutton, whose farm was in Kilgariffe, Clonakilty, Co Cork, previously pleaded guilty to attempting to defraud the Department of Agriculture of £75,000 in 1996 and was dealt with by the courts last year.
Veterinary surgeon Mr Eugene Power told the court that on arrival at the farm on October 5th, 1996, he examined the BSE-infected animal. He said he formed the opinion that the animal had been re-tagged when he found droplets of blood on the ear which he believed were a few days old.
Mr Power also noted that the animal had no horns, while identification papers from the previous year stated that it had a full set of horns.
Mr John McCarthy, veterinary surgeon at the Cork District Veterinary Office, testified that Sutton would probably not have been aware that the Department of Agriculture kept a record as to the de-horning of the animal in question.
The BSE-infected animal was also found to have one hole in its left ear while corresponding tag number files at the Department of Agriculture had a record of two tags on the animal. One of the tags was for identification and the other was a TB reactor tag.