Ireland has suffered its first homegrown case of the human form of mad cow disease, but consumers of Irish beef shouldn't be worried about its safety, the government said yesterday.

　　Health minister Mary Harney sent a message of sympathy to the victim, a man in his early 20s, after doctors confirmed his diagnosis for variant Crutzfeld-Jakob Disease or vCJD, a fatal condition linked to the consumption of infected beef.

　　But prime Minister Bertie Ahern told lawmakers that Ireland had taken severe controls since the early 1990s to ensure that its beef is free of the disease formally called bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE.

　　Ahern said Ireland's Agriculture Department is continuing to take all the necessary precautions, and said his advisers on BSE had assured him that there "shouldn't be a need for public concern over the safety of Irish beef."

　　No details of the victim or the Dublin hospital where he is being treated have been published. The Irish Times newspaper, which broke the news of the confirmed diagnosis, quoted the patient's neurologist as saying that the victim and his family "have asked that their privacy be respected. It has been a very traumatic time for them."

　　Ireland's health department confirmed that the man has never received or donated blood, and has lived his entire life in Ireland.

　　This indicated that the victim caught the brain-wasting disease from beef infected with BSE that was purchased in Ireland, where imported British beef has been sold alongside Irish beef in supermarkets. However in recent years, Irish restaurants increasingly specify their beef is Irish rather than British.

　　Mad cow disease eats holes in the brains of cattle. It appeared in Britain in 1986 and spread through Europe and Asia, prompting massive destruction of herds and devastating the European beef industry.

　　(The Associated Press)