A cow suffering from BSE in the 1990s.jpg

Isolated case of BSE "not wholly unexpected" say Department after disease detected in Scotland

Damian McCarney

An isolated instance of BSE in Britain has come as no surprise, according to the Irish Department of Agriculture spokesperson.

A case of so-called mad cow disease was today confirmed in Aberdeenshire. The disease was detected in an animal which had died and a movement ban was put in place on the farm, which has not been named. According to the BBC, it's understood that there have been 16 cases of BSE in the UK since 2011, with the latest detected in Wales in 2015.

The Anglo-Celt asked the Department if they will be taking any steps to protect Irish beef, and its reputation, in light of the reported incidence of BSE in Scotland? Their response suggests that they trust the Scottish authorities to manage the disease appropriately.
“The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine notes the announcement of the BSE case in Scotland. It is not wholly unexpected to find an occasional isolated case at the end of any disease epidemic. The Department notes that Scottish authorities are taking the appropriate measures to investigate the possible source and to identify and investigate any cohort or progeny animals which may be at risk.”

A major outbreak of BSE occurred in the UK in the 1990s. Having passed into the food chain leading to a fatal disease

It can be passed on to humans in the food chain, causing a fatal condition called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). Of the 226 cases of CJD worldwide, 174 have been recorded in the UK.