A secondfarm in the North has come under scrutiny amid fears it may be infected by the foot and mouth virus.
Slaughter has begun of 40 cattle and 200 sheep on the farm near Cushendall, Co Antrim on the north east coast, after a number of the livestock were found to have lesions suggestive of the disease.
The animals on the farm have been treated as 'hot-suspects'. Samples have been sent to laboratories for testing.
Agriculture Minister Bríd Rodgers said: "This is very disappointing after the confirmation of the case in Co Tyrone. . .Samples have been taken and are on their way to Pirbright and slaughter has already commenced on the farm.
Cushendall is along the Antrim coast road, one of Northern Ireland's most popular tourist routes.
A cull of 4,000 animals began earlier after confirmation of the virus on a farm in Arboe in County Tyrone.
Earlier today, the Northern Minister for Agriculture, Bríd Rodgers, announced the North had now lost its disease-free status which had been given by the EU's veterinary committee.
The North can no longer export livestock or meat based products following the discovery yesterday of a second case of foot-and-mouth.
The minister also announced plans for the mass-slaughter of over 4,000 cattle, sheep and pigs in the area around Ardboe in Co. Tyrone, where the latest case of Foot and Mouth disease was confirmed.
"It goes without saying that this is a huge set back for the whole of Northern Ireland's agriculture industry and comes just at a time when our hopes were high we might have escaped this dreadful scourge," she said.
The European Union had decided to give the province a distinct status from the rest of Britain, which is being ravaged by foot-and-mouth.
Rodgers held emergency meetings earlier todaywith veterinary officials and rural representatives to discuss new measures to prevent the further spread of the virus, discovered in Ardboe in central County Tyrone.
A two mile buffer zone has been erected around the suspect farm.
"I have to say at this point that further tests are been carried out as a matter of urgency to provide further confirmation that we are really dealing with foot-and-mouth disease," Rodgers told reporters, adding that earlier results had been negative.
An emergency meeting of the North's power-sharing excecutive is to take place on Monday to discuss the crisis.