Ireland has joined the world’s top-ranked beef-producing countries with the decision by the World Animal Health Organisation (OIE) to recognise Ireland as having a negligible risk for BSE. This brings to a close what has been a two decade-long problem for the beef industry.

Until now, Ireland was classified with major beef-producing countries such as the UK, France, Canada, Germany, Poland and Spain in the “controlled risk” category. That meant that steps were taken to prevent specified risk material (SRM) that was in any way linked to the animal’s brain going anywhere near the food chain and to it being disposed of at high cost, instead of being a potential revenue.

There were further problems associated with controlled risk status. Even though in practical terms it meant nothing in the safety of beef, the fact that there was a better category that we weren’t in meant we were explaining, and as is usual when you are explaining, you are losing. That will no longer be the case as Ireland is now at the top table in terms of BSE risk status.

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A further problem lay in that when BSE was at its height, EU vets came to a committee decision deeming 30 months as being the cutoff point for any risk of BSE infection in an animal. There was no particular science behind this but it stuck as the significant age in animal’s life for a BSE risk.

Some top customers have picked that up over the years as a date for the cutoff of their beef specification and – even more importantly – 30 months was picked as a cutoff date for accepting Irish beef in many export destinations, such as Japan and Hong Kong. That limited the benefit of these to the Irish industry.

In welcoming the OIE decision, Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney has stated that his officials will be working to achieve “simplified trade certification conditions over time”.

This has to include removal of the 30-month age limit. For example, not getting the mountain chain product from cows into Japan is a serious missed opportunity, and this has to proceed with all possible speed.

The IFA president Eddie Downey welcomed the decision, seeing it as an opportunity for development of new markets and a reduction of factory SRM disposal costs, leaving more money to pay to farmers. He also sees the development as an important contributor to the IFA’s campaign for increasing the 30-month age limit to 36 months.