Figures out this afternoon indicate that the incidence in Ireland of the cattle brain disease, BSE, continues to decline.
The Minister for Agriculture, Mary Coughlan, has welcomed the fall-off in the disease, which raised consumer concern about beef for several years and caused havoc to meat exports.
She said she is pleased that the underlying trend remains positive and that the Governments controls are proving effective.
During the 1990s and into this decade, BSE was a huge worry for farmers and consumers in Ireland.
This disease, which destroys brain and nerve system of cattle, first became widespread in Britain. But by the late 1980s it had arrived in Ireland.
Many counties immediately stopped taking our beef exports - which plunged agriculture here into crisis as 90% of our beef has to be sold abroad.
There were under 20 outbreaks a year until 1995, until the figures began to rise dramatically with about 150 cases in the millennium year, reaching 333 cases in 2002, the worst year ever.
But the figures have been dropping significantly since, to 41 in 2006.
The Government spent hundreds of millions on measures to contain the disease.
Fears that eating contaminated meat could affect people were confirmed a decade ago when BSE was linked to a human form of the disease, variant CJD.
A recent report suggested that four people in the Republic have died from new variant CJD in the past decade. Some of them had lived abroad for long periods and may have become infected there.
However, meat exports have well recovered from the crisis. But Government measures continue, seeking to reassure consumers and protect important export outlets. The expensive slaughtering out of an entire herd when even one animal contracts the disease still goes on.
All animals over 30 months are still being tested for BSE at abattoirs. Specified risk material, such as spinal cords, is removed from all cattle slaughtered.
Although there is far less public concern about BSE nowadays, there is relief in many quarters that the disease seems to be on the way out.
