NI cattle not tested for BSE

Northern Ireland has recorded 22 cases of BSE this year

Northern Ireland's Department of Agriculture is being blamed for failing to test nine cattle which should have been screened for the brain disease BSE.

The animals were considered a risk as they had sustained injuries - suggesting their balance may have been affected.

A report ordered by the Food Standards Agency said the testing failures were due to errors by department vets supervising at meat plants.

The inquiry concluded that the risk to human health was very low.

This independent inquiry was originally initiated by the Food Standards Agency in Britain in June.

The setting up of the inquiry followed an audit by the Meat Hygiene Service which uncovered a number of failures to test "casualty cattle" aged 24-30 months.

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development then undertook its own check in Northern Ireland.

'No confirmed cases'

When it established that nine animals had not been tested, DARD asked for the inquiry in Great Britain to be extended to Northern Ireland.

The steering group which undertook the inquiry was led by Professor Patrick Wall, Professor of Food Safety at University College Dublin and former chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.

The inquiry concluded that the risk to human health from all casualty cattle entering the food chain was very low.

That assessment, it said, was based on the fact there have been no confirmed cases of BSE in cattle under 30 months in the UK since 1996.

The inquiry team also said there had been no BSE positives detected in the more than 2,800 casualty cattle aged 24-30 months tested to date.

The report also points to the removal of specified risk material, such as spinal cords, from beef carcases which it said would account for 99% of any infectivity that may be present.

The report on the testing errors though will not help Northern Ireland's case for removal of all beef export restrictions.

BBC Northern Ireland rural affairs correspondent Masrtin Cassidy said: "The last eight years have been littered with attempts to get the chance win back lucrative supermarket orders from the continent.

"Progress though has been frustrated by a series of problems including shortcomings in cattle identification.

"Scientists though remain confident that BSE is now tailing off in the cattle herd.

"The disease now seems to be confined to a small number of older animals which may have been exposed to infected feed earlier in their lives."

Northern Ireland has recorded 22 cases of BSE this year.

The government continues to insist that all cattle over 30 months of age are kept out of the food chain.