Ireland has insisted a shock new case of BSE - the country’s first in two years - is an isolated case and Irish beef supply chains are secure.
The Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine (DAFM) said this week that a five year-old dairy cow in County Louth had tested positive for “classical BSE”.
The cow was not sold for slaughter and did not enter the food chain.
It appeared to be an “isolated” case, the department said, though it admitted key questions remained unanswered after a two-week investigation, and there was no clear explanation as to how the cow contracted BSE in the first place.
A DAFM report ruled out “vertical transmission” - where BSE is passed from mother to offspring - because the infected animal’s dam, grand-dam and progeny tested negative.
It also claimed there was no evidence the animal had been infected through feed, because there were no traces of meat and bone meal - which triggered the 1980s outbreak - in feed supplied to the farm.
Ireland exports about 180,000 tonnes of beef a year to the UK and is a major supplier of beef to the mults.
Sources said the discovery of an isolated case was unlikely to prompt UK supermarkets to stop sourcing beef from Ireland, but questioned how Irish authorities could rule out feed transmission so firmly.
But British Veterinary Association president John Blackwell said it was not unkown for “spontaneous” cases of BSE to occur. He stressed the risk to the human food chain was “zero”.
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