ICSA HAS met Minister Mary Coughlan to demand immediate action to phase out BSE testing.

The association claimed that the huge amount of testing being carried out was completely out of line with the rapidly declining incidence of BSE in Ireland. In 2006, some 850,000 tests were carried out, even though the total amount of BSE positives was just 41 animals.

Many of these animals were either fallen stock or exhibited classic symptoms, which proves, said the ICSAm that the 850,000 BSE tests were, to a very large extent, a complete waste of time.

According to ICSA beef chairman Robin Smith, this represented an obscene cost of some 20 million. “While we all accept that food safety comes first, it is clear that BSE will be soon a matter of history. There is no scientific justification for testing cattle born in this country in the last five years; BSE is becoming less relevant as most of the cattle that may have been exposed to meat and bone meal have been slaughtered and the only possible risk animals are the older cows.”

ICSA wants an immediate end to testing all healthy cattle less than 42 months of age, and a commitment that over a number of years, the testing of older animals will also be phased out.

Source: Roscommon Herald