A total of 6,000 leaflets advising Irish soccer fans travelling to the World Cup of the potential dangers of bringing home foot and mouth disease, have been issued to the FAI and Irish travel agents.
The leaflets have been prepared by the Department of Agriculture Food and Rural Development against the background of 12 outbreaks of the disease in South Korea.
Officials there have slaughtered 110,000 animals to try and contain the outbreak which to date has involved 12 confirmed cases since May 4th.
The Minister, Mr Walsh, said that the outbreak and spread of the disease in Korea was of concern in the context of the forthcoming World Cup competition, which will see an enormous influx of visitors to the region, with the competition being jointly hosted by Korea and Japan.
"I note recent statements by the Korean authorities to the effect that they believe they have contained the outbreak," the Minister said. "I very much hope that this is so but these are still early days and it remains the case that the situation there constitutes a potential risk. For so long as there remains any risk of carrying the FMD virus from Korea to this country, we must exercise the greatest care to ensure that this does not happen."
He said that in the event of Irish fans travelling to Korea should the Irish team progress, he had asked the Department to prepare advice leaflets on FMD for distribution to Irish fans travelling to the World Cup.
"I want to ask each and every fan travelling from Ireland to the World Cup to read these short leaflets and to follow the advice given. If they do so, they will be supporting not only the team but the country and doing a great deal to ensure that the FMD virus is not unknowingly brought back to this country," Mr Walsh said.