Ireland is to introduce a sheep tracing system similar to a method of tagging used to follow the movement of cattle, in the latest bid to prevent an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, Minister for Agriculture Joe Walsh said today.
Mr Walsh said that the under the measure, all sheep will have to have an ear tag indentifying their flock of origin or the flock they are moved to.
"I had a meeting with farmers yesterday and I insisted on this measure going ahead and it will go ahead," he said on RTE radio.
"We have the strictest regime in Europe in relation to cattle, but for sheep and pigs ... there is no individual tagging or identification," he said.
Mr Walsh warned a foot-and-mouth outbreak in Ireland would be "the single most devastating matter that could happen since independence."
"Restrictions will have to be kept as long as there is an outbreak in the UK," said Peter Lynch, a vet and a former secretary of the health committee of the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA).
"I don't see sports fixtures and large gatherings of people back before May," Mr Lynch said.
"Cattle, meat and milk production are more important for the Irish economy than for the economy of any other country in the EU," said Alan Gillis, a former Euro MP and president of the IFA.
"We are all the more vulnerable since we export 90 percent of our cattle."
Mr Gillis said what is "a crisis for Britain" would be "a plague for Ireland". "I've been fighting animal disease for 30 years but it's the most worrying situation I have seen," he said.
AFP