All 30-month old Irish cattle to be tested for BSE

The Minister for Agriculture has said that arrangements are being made for the testing of all cattle 30 months of age. Mr Walsh said that the extra testing planned for early in the new year should mean that all Irish beef could be described as BSE-free.

Meanwhile, the German government has said that it is delaying the introduction of measures that would ban the production and import of meat-and-bone meal. This is despite the discovery last week of the first cases of BSE-infected cows in the country. Germany's agriculture minister said that there was an insufficient legal basis to go ahead with the ban, which was to have been in place by Wednesday.

Earlier today, the European Union's Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection said that no EU country should advertise its beef as being free of BSE. David Byrne was commenting on plans to market Irish beef as BSE-free. Speaking on RTÉ Radio, he acknowledged that Ireland had imposed strict measures against the disease, but he said that no guarantees could be given.

Yesterday, Mr Byrne accused a number of European countries, including Germany and Spain, of not doing enough to guard against BSE. Commissioner Byrne was in Germany for talks with the country's Health Minister, Andrea Fischer. Confirmation of BSE cases in Germany and France has caused a slump in beef sales and a crisis in consumer confidence.

The fear in Brussels is that after the BSE outbreak in Britain, infected low-cost animal feed was dumped onto export markets and is now being discovered in mainland European herds. Last Tuesday, EU Farm Ministers agreed to a massive increase in the cattle-testing programme in an attempt to discover the scale of the problem. EU vets are due to review the situation tomorrow. Agriculture ministers will meet next week and Commissioner Byrne wants health ministers at those talks.