With Ireland meeting the qualification to achieve negligible risk BSE status in May this year, the BSE hangover, in place for almost 20 years, will come to an end.

Negligible risk status can only be achieved when 11 years have passed from the last case of BSE in the native national herd. For Ireland, that occurred in May 2004.

The IFA is calling for the occasion to be marked by an ending of the 30-month age limit on prime cattle. The organisation has been campaigning for the age limit of prime cattle to be increased to 36 months across the board, referring to the fact that most customers accept that already.

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BSE status

IFA president Eddie Downey said: “With the change in our BSE status from May, processors, retailers and Bord Bia need to work together to deliver on this important outcome of the Beef Forum. He said the delivery target set by Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney as chair of the Beef Forum is that there will be no 30-month age limit applied in summer 2015.

The 30-month age limit on cattle was a committee decision taken by the EU at the height of the BSE crisis in the 1990s. It was the cutoff point below which it was decreed that there would be no risk of BSE.

Compromise

However, it was only ever a compromise figure, because there was no scientifically defined age at which there was no risk. Some wanted it set as low as 24 months at the time, others were prepared to accept 36 months at the outset.

The IFA campaign to have a 36-month age limit for prime cattle receives a boost with Ireland’s new status, which will put us in the lowest possible risk category. However, it will require factories to negotiate an acceptance of 36 months by all major customers for Irish beef to close the deal.