The discovery of a suspect case of foot-and-mouth disease in a sheep on a farm in northern England will not cause any disruption here because controls remain on ports and airports, the Department of Agriculture said yesterday.
Virus antibodies turned up in one sheep in a flock which had been brought onto a farm which was being restocked, according to the British authorities.
The animal was slaughtered and all the other animals on the farm blood-tested but none was found to have antibodies. The results of the test will be known in four days.
The discovery of the animal with antibodies in the blood indicating it had been in contact with the disease, came four months after the last confirmed case of the disease in Britain which had just declared itself free of the disease.
A Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development spokesman said yesterday it was in touch with the British authorities and had been told the suspect animal was in a restricted area from where animals are not allowed to leave.
"British sheep are not being imported here and controls remain on British ports and on airports. There is no real danger from this latest incident," he said.
This week the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, removed many of the restrictions designed to keep the disease out of this State, including restrictions on people from Britain visiting Irish farms.