An urgent all-island approach to stop foot and mouth from entering the Republic or Northern Ireland began today after the disease was detected in cattle on a farm in southern England.
In Dublin, a high-level Government committee is gathering to reiterate a state-wide ban on live animals, fresh meats and non-pasteurised milk originating from the UK.
The Stormont Executive is holding an emergency cabinet meeting at noon to consider the province's response to the threat to the farming industry from the Surrey outbreak.
Minister for Agriculture and Food Mary Coughlan has already been in talks with Stormont Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew to co-ordinate north-south efforts to avoid a repeat of the 2001 FMD epidemic.
First Minister Rev Ian Paisley and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness are expected to attend today's Stormont cabinet meeting.
Ms Coughlan said inspectors in her department were also tracing animals that arrived in the Republic from the UK in recent weeks.
The minister said her officials are also consulting experts from the Dublin-based National Disease Surveillance Centre this morning.
"There will be more discussions and more control measures announced if deemed appropriate," she explained.
"At the moment we are dealing with something we haven't enough information on to determine how widespread this outbreak in the UK is."
Ms Gildernew also confirmed she had been in contact with officials at Defra in England.
The Irish Farmers' Association and other agricultural groups called for a maximum bio-security alert to protect the multi-million euro meat industry in the state.
The Irish Dairy Industry Association (IDIA) Director Michael Barry said "It is important that rapid and effective measures are adopted to eliminate any risks posed to Ireland's industry resulting from the UK outbreak."
Meanwhile Dublin Port introduced emergency procedures in response to the FMD outbreak.
According to the company disinfectant spray units were at the ramps of all ferry terminals today, to spray disinfectant on vehicles disembarking the ferries.