A dead cow displaying symptoms similar to foot-and-mouth disease has been found in Northern Ireland. An exclusion zone around the area where the cow was found has been put in place and a hunt has been cancelled as a result.
Northern Ireland Agricultural Minister Mrs Brid Rodgers said her department's vets believe the cow, found on a farm in the mid-Ulster area, died of malignant catarrh.
She said she was restricting the movement of animals within an five-mile radius as a precaution until it is confirmed the animal did not have foot-and-mouth disease.
Irish horseracing suffered it's first cancellation due to foot-and-mouth disease since 1968 when a point-to-point meeting in the North was called off.
The Department of Agriculture advised North Down Hunt tocancel the racing scheduled for tomorrow at Comber, Co Down.
A spokesperson for the hunt said: "It wasn't a question of a ban but the Department of Agriculture said that they felt under the circumstances it would be advisable not to bring people from the farming community together."
The Ulster Horse Ploughing Championships in Co Armagh, has also been cancelled as have next week's livestock sales.
Mrs Rodgers said the blood tests carried out on livestock of three farms which transported pigs to the Essex abattoir where the disease was first detected had proved negative.
Additional reporting PA