Mad cow disease - a memory to many and news to some

The Mad cow disease, or BSE,  fears of the 1980's will be a memory to many, and news to some.

The condition in adult cattle affects their brain and central nervous system and often kills them. It can remain dormant for many years.

Whilst BSE develops in cattle it can affect humans, it's called CJD, or Variant-CJD and there are cases where humans who have eaten BSE-infected meat developed vCJD. It is always fatal for humans.

It’s thought that many of the cases are linked to cattle that were fed on meat and bone meal, it was made from animal remains which were rendered and cooked and then mixed into animal feeds. Meat and bone meal was eventually banned in the 1990s.

There are now rigorous measures in place to help control the disease. Strict movement records must be kept, so that authorities can determine where an animal has been and for how long. Cattle are screened, even cattle that die of natural causes are tested. That’s how the latest case was detected.

The 14-year-old cow died on a farm and was then taken to a knackery in Tipperary to be destroyed, the test came back positive and the case was notified to the Department of Agriculture.

There was never any chance the cow would end up in the food chain, so there was no risk to human health.

Read:
Export of Irish beef to China temporarily suspended due to case of Atypical BSE

The same applied to the last recorded case of the disease in Galway in 2017. There is a paranoia about ensuring Ireland remains BSE-free, as the impact on our exports would be huge.

We export 90% of the beef we produce, so there is an imperative to develop export markets. It’s something environmentalists constantly criticise, there is a discussion around balancing economic benefits with environmental impacts.

 Already, with this new atypical case exports to China are on hold. It is a blow. We’ve exported over 3,000 tonnes of Irish beef to China so far this year. 

Late last year the head of Bord Bia and the Minister for Agriculture travelled to China to promote beef exports. Then a team of inspectors came to Ireland to examine meat plants that would later become approved for export. That happened, and never before have more Irish facilities been involved in exporting beef to China.

The population in China of over 1.3 billion people is developing a taste for beef. Exports are expected to grow ten-fold by the end of this year.

When the Bord Bia Chief Executive Tara McCarthy spoke to RTÉ in China last November, she outlined how her organisation and the Government was working "to position Irish beef well in the Chinese market, differentiating it by selling its sustainability credentials, it’s natural grass fed credentials, its quality assurance and most importantly its safety".

"Its safety", a vital and key selling point. 

Since 2001 there have been 1661 cases of BSE here. Since the mid 2000’s the number of cases has been paltry. 

It may have been virtually eradicated, but as today's news proves, it hasn't gone away.

Ireland currently has a "controlled risk" status, measures put in place to help curb the disease have worked.

The Government is moving towards the "negligible risk" status, in fact today the Department of Agriculture said the latest cases does not affect Ireland's progress towards reaching that improved status.