The EU Commissioner for food safety, Mr David Byrne, said there was no basis as yet for extending the ban on meat and dairy exports to the Republic. But he said the situation was changing "hour by hour" and he would not shy away from imposing a ban on the Republic if it was needed.
"It would obviously cause me pain if it did arise. There is no evidence that such a ban is required. But I have to be absolutely even-handed in my duties as a Commissioner," he said.
Mr Byrne pointed out that although 47,000 sheep have been slaughtered in France and 4,500 in Germany, the Commission had taken no action against those two member-states.
But it is widely believed in Brussels that if foot-and-mouth disease is found to have spread to the Republic, the Commissioner will have no option but to impose a ban on the export of meat and dairy products.
Most Irish beef and pigmeat exports are to Britain but France accounts for almost all the State's exports of sheepmeat - a market worth £120 million each year. A ban would have its most devastating effect on exports of dairy products, a market worth almost £1 billion throughout the world.
Germany breathed a sigh of relief yesterday when three sheep imported from Britain tested negative for the foot-and-mouth virus.
Two farms had been sealed off after officials said imported British sheep there were exposed to the disease and the nation should gird itself for a potential "disaster".
But later the government said there was no reason for panic after preliminary tests. The sheep had tested positive for antibodies to the disease, indicating they had been in contact with infected animals.
"The further tests carried out so far show that with great probability there was no infection," said Ms Sigrun Neuwerth, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Consumer Protection and Agriculture. "So we have no genuine suspected cases in Germany."
The antibodies were detected in blood samples from a group of 350 sheep from two farms in North Rhine-Westphalia that were destroyed in recent days because they had come from a British farm hit by foot-and-mouth disease. Two rounds of tests found no trace of the virus, Ms Neuwerth said, and further results were expected within days.
Taking no chances, state farm inspectors earlier ordered twomile exclusion zones around the farms.
One farm is in Neuss, a suburb of the state capital Dusseldorf; the other is in Aachen on the Dutch border.
State Environment Minister Mr Baerbel Hoehn said a foot-and-mouth outbreak would be a "disaster scenario".
Animal inspectors yesterday finished slaughtering 1,200 remaining sheep from the two affected farms and sprayed disinfectant at the sites. The carcasses were to be ground up and burned. In the state of Schleswig-Holstein, the authorities have sealed off a farm with 31 pigs imported from Britain six weeks ago until the results of blood tests on the animals come back.
German airports have already placed food entering from Britain - anything containing meat or dairy products - under suspicion as a possible carrier of foot-and-mouth disease. Customs officers were seizing uneaten sandwiches from passengers arriving from Britain and distributing leaflets explaining precautions against carrying the disease.
Fear of the disease spread further in Europe as Croatia announced it would ban all livestock imports from tomorrow, while United Nations administrators in Kosovo barred shipments of animals, meat and milk from Britain to the Yugoslav province.
(Additional reporting by AP)
