An 8 km restriction zone was last night placed around a farm in Northern Ireland after a cow died showing symptoms similar to foot-and-mouth disease.
The North's Agriculture Minister, Ms Brid Rodgers, stressed it was a "purely precautionary" move. Department of Agriculture sources said they believed tests would show the animal was not suffering from the disease.
Ms Rodgers said the department believed the animal may have died from a condition known as malignant catarrh. As its symptoms are similar to those of foot-and-mouth-disease, department vets would be carrying out extensive tests on the cow. The department was contacted after the farmer spotted blisters on the feet of the cow. Ms Rodgers said a calf which had been suckling the animal showed no symptoms. She is prohibiting the export of cattle, sheep and pigs from the North to Britain. She also called for a voluntary ban on livestock sales next week and she urged the public to avoid the countryside.
Earlier, the department said tests had shown that farms in the North were not the source of the foot-and-mouth outbreak. Ms Rodgers said tests on three farms which supplied pigs to the Essex abattoir where the deadly disease was detected had found no trace of the disease.
She told the Assembly's agriculture committee that laboratory tests were still being carried out and preliminary results should be available soon. The lorry which transported the pigs to the abattoir had been taken out of circulation.
Ms Rodgers said the EU ban on UK animal and dairy produce would continue to apply to the North until further notice. She ruled out any special compensation for farmers affected by the ban. "The only compensation available is for animals that have to be slaughtered as a result of the disease," she said.
Every effort was being made to prove that the North was disease-free so the ban would be lifted as soon as possible, she added.