THE MINISTER for Agriculture yesterday blamed this year's upsurge in BSE cases on the continued use of banned meat and bonemeal. Mr Yates made his remarks in the Dail as Department officials dismissed a report in the Examiner that Russia was seeking to exclude beef from a further seven counties.
Since November 1st Russia whose 1996 purchases of Irish beef are worth nearly £300 million, has refused to import beef from Cork, Tipperary and Monaghan. The Examiner report said the Moscow Veterinary Committee had recommended that beef from Wexford, Limerick Longford, Clare, Cavan, Donegal and Kilkenny should also be excluded.
The committee had asked the Russian Federation's agriculture ministry to seek the further exclusions because of additional cases of the disease, the report said. Since the start of 1996 there have been 63 new cases of BSE in the Republic, compared with 16 cases last year.
A spokesman said the Department of Agriculture was not aware of any such demand by the Russian authorities.
A Russian embassy spokesman in Dublin said he could not confirm or deny the report and referred all queries to An Bord Bia where two Russian vets are based.
A spokeswoman for An Bord Bia said it was not aware of the report nor of any demands for more counties to be excluded from Russian contracts. It was not possible to contact the Russian veterinary officials as they were out on Inspections at meat plants.
Department of Agriculture sources accepted last night that the increase in BSE cases could lead to an extension of the Russian ban. That had been clearly stated by the Russian chief vet in an article in The Irish Times.
In that article on October 22nd, Mr Ayacheslav Avilov said the ban on the three counties would be lifted as soon as BSE levels fell. But he added that meat from other counties could be banned if levels of the disease rose there. Mr Avilov also accused Irish farmers of continuing illicitly to feed meat and bonemeal to cattle.
In the Dail yesterday Mr Yates announced a new labelling system for animal feed ingredients and said there would be Border checks for illegal meat and bonemeal coming from the North.
Mr Peter Dargan of the Consumers Association of Ireland said yesterday he would be increasing the pressure to have all food safety matters taken away from the Department of Agriculture.
He said the Department had been "reckless" in failing until early this year to remove from the food chain all animals from a herd in which BSE had been found.