Farmer jailed for BSE scam

Ireland imposed stringent measures to prevent spread of BSE

By the BBC's Paul Anderson

An Irish farmer has been jailed for deliberately introducing the cattle disease, BSE, better known as mad cow disease, into his herd in order to collect compensation.

The famer, James Sutton, from County Cork, in the south of the republic, was told his actions could have affected the whole Irish economy.

This was the first successful prosecution under legislation introduced to stop the spread of mad cow disease in Ireland.

The court in Cork heard that in 1996, Sutton travelled to Northern Ireland to buy a cow infected with BSE and then introduced it into his herd after exchanging its ear tag with one from a healthy cow.

Later, Sutton contacted a vet who diagnosed BSE and ordered the farmer's entire herd to be slaughtered.

In debt

Sutton, who was heavily in debt, hoped to be awarded $90,000 in compensation.

But police became suspicious after noticing the diseased cow's identity papers did not match those of the healthy one - it had no horns.

Their investigation uncovered a cross-border scam to smuggle infected animals into the Republic.

Another farmer is awaiting trial and two more are under investigation.

'Enormous' crime

The judge trying Sutton said his crime was enormous and jailed him for five years.

An Irish agriculture official said it could have had huge consequences, not just for the national cattle herd, but for the whole economy.

The BSE incidence rate in Ireland in a national herd of nearly eight million cattle is small - only 500 since the first infected cow was discovered in 1989.

But that is still been enough to make the Irish government impose stringent measures to prevent any spread and to avoid the boycott of beef which blighted British farmers for much of the last decade.

The European Union has now lifted its ban on imports of British beef. Despite that, it is still widely observed in France.