Marksmen from the Army's Ranger wing were brought in yesterday to assist in the culling of wild goats on the Cooley Mountains as the slaughter of animals within the foot-and-mouth exclusion zone continued.
The carcasses of about 70 goats were put into protective plastic bags and flown by Army helicopter to a lorry, which brought them to an abattoir in Ravensdale.
By last night, 20,000 sheep had been slaughtered by vets. At the moment the Department is culling all sheep in the extended corridor, which leaves a ste rile area or "firebreak" between the Proleek case and the Border as well as along the Louth border with Northern Ireland.
Yesterday afternoon a number of farmers across the peninsula, anticipating the worst, told the Department they were volunteering to have their flocks culled. "We know it is inevitable, the sooner it is done the better," one farmer said.
Farmers in the Cooley peninsula are living on their nerves as they wait for results of tests carried out on suspect sheep in Louth on Wednesday night. The results are due today and farmers are dreading a positive finding.
"That will be the end of it, there will be no sheep left here," said one farmer who had already lost his flock and feared his cattle would have to go.
The farm at the centre of this scare belongs to Mr Tony Keenan at Piedmont, Riverstown. It is just within the 10-km exclusion zone established around the first case, which was in a flock of sheep at Proleek, eight kilometres from Dundalk. He is a nephew of Mr Michael Rice (82), the owner of the infected flock at Proleek. Both men are respected within the farming community and described as "good and clean" by colleagues.
The 135 sheep on Mr Keenan's farm have been slaughtered as a precautionary measure. He has two other holdings in the peninsula, and if foot-and-mouth is confirmed the sheep and cattle on them will also be slaughtered.
It is understood that a local vet who examined the four sick ewes on his main farm at Piedmont was worried by what he found and asked for Department of Agriculture personnel to look at them.
Last evening Department vets were visiting farms within three kilometres of Mr Keenan. "We are preparing so we can act straight away if it is a Yes result," one source said.
If it is confirmed, all sheep, cattle, goats and pigs within a kilometre of the farm will be slaughtered as will all sheep within three kilometres.