US Welcomes Irish Beef After Mad Cow Ban

Irish beef producers have become the first in the European Union to be allowed to resume exports to the US, more than 15 years after a ban was imposed because of mad cow disease.

The green light came after US officials inspected the country's production systems, said Simon Coveney, Minister for agriculture, food and marine.

Irish authorities believe annual exports to the US to be worth at least €25m (£19.6m) - a significant figure for a country with a population of less than five million.

Access to the huge American market can provide a lucrative revenue stream for nations meeting stringent US requirements.

The US lifted its ban on beef from the EU in March 2014, but inspections were necessary before exports were allowed to resume.

Britain's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs told Sky News it now expects UK exports - valued at a similar amount to Ireland - to restart shortly.

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is fatal to cows and can cause a fatal human brain disease in people who eat meat from infected cows.

BSE spread in the late 1980s and early 1990s within the United Kingdom and then to other nations after rendered bovine origin proteins were used as an ingredient in cattle feed.

Such was the level of concern in Britain over suspect home-grown beef that some food chains, such as McDonald's, promoted themselves as not using UK-sourced meat.

Strict restrictions on feed sourcing and tracing animal history has been highly effective in reducing cases of BSE.

According to America's Food and Drug Administration, only four cases of mad cow have been detected in the US.

The first was in 2003 from a cow imported from Canada, with three later cases from US-born cattle.

Those later cases were believed to have been from a different strain to that behind Britain's large-scale outbreak.

Britain's National Farmers Union livestock adviser Tom Fullick told Sky News: "We had our American colleagues over in late 2014 to look at equivalence with British abattoirs, which was a matter of months behind the Irish.

"Given that their abattoirs are very similar to ours I'd expect us to be approved sometime in the near future, within the first quarter."

He added: "When we get access the fact that we export to the US sends a very strong message to other potential markets."