The latest controls announced by the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, include a complete ban on the movement of animals until tomorrow.
The movement of cattle, sheep, pigs, goats and deer had been restricted to one journey only, to a slaughterhouse or abattoir. However, the Minister ordered that, from Saturday, a permit was required to make this journey legal and all animal movements were prohibited after 6 p.m. on that day.
Permits to move animals to slaughterhouses will be available today from Teagasc offices and from post offices.
Farmers will be required to complete a form and will have to make contact by phone with the meat plant to which animals are being moved and the Teagasc office.
Teagasc has been given the task of processing the forms. It will give a permit number to the farmer when he gives officials a booking number from the meat plant. Farmers will have to wait one hour after receiving the permit number from Teagasc before beginning the journey to the meat plant.
Mr Michael Miley, of Teagasc, said that this was to enable Teagasc to forward details of the permit to the Garda. He said Teagasc would specify the routes to be taken to the meat plants. Prosecutions could result if there was any deviation from a specified route.
Meat plants will be allowed to kill only animals they have in lairage [holding pens] at their factories. The system is expected to be fully operational at some stage tomorrow.
Teagasc personnel are to begin visiting secondary schools to explain to students the foot-and-mouth protection strategy to be implemented by farmers and the public.
It has also specified that the infection pads or mats placed at entrances to farms should be large enough to ensure disinfection of the wheels of tractors and delivery/collection trucks. To achieve this, the recommended size of the pad is 15 feet by 9 feet.