Press Room

Macra na Feirme national president Colm Markey has today welcomed the announcement from the Minister for Agriculture, Mary Coughlan, that she is to replace the compulsory BSE whole herd depopulation policy with a partial depopulation policy.

Mr Markey said that it was a positive sign of the progress made in terms of reducing incidence of BSE in Ireland and pointed out that the whole herd depopulation policy was very stressful on those farmers who had to deal with the traumatic situation of losing all their animals when perhaps only one animal had been diagnosed positive.

The young farmer leader said that Ireland had always taken the most stringent approach when it came to implementing control measures in relation to BSE and that this was a testament to farmers' commitment to food safety and quality.

'Contamination levels have been dramatically reduced in recent years and BSE no longer poses a serious threat to food safety in this country. The Department of Agriculture and Food recognise this fact and have acted accordingly with this change of policy,' concluded Mr Markey.

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