Minister fears farm disease in NI

A flock of sheep is being slaughtered

Northern Ireland Agriculture Minister Brid Rodgers has said she now believes foot-and-mouth disease has been discovered in sheep in south Armagh.

The animals are now being slaughtered.

Mrs Rodgers made the announcement at Stormont on Wednesday.

The minister said: "I can confirm that on examination at slaughter some of the sheep presented symptoms which are consistent with foot-and-mouth disease.

"I have to tell you that it is now my belief that we are looking at an outbreak of this disease in Northern Ireland.

"However, as I indicated earlier we will have to await confirmation."

Neighbouring farms are now to be examined.

The sheep were imported into Northern Ireland from a market near Carlisle.

An exclusion zone has been set up around the south Armagh farm, which is close to the Irish border.

Department vets ordered the immediate slaughter of the flock at Meigh after some of the sheep became lame.

Mrs Rodgers said the animals' carcasses would be incinerated after blood tests had been carried out.

Brid Rodgers: Sheep are now being slaughtered

The results of the tests are expected within 48 hours.

The minister also said samples from a sheep suspected of having the disease were to be sent for analysis.

The sheep is from a farm in the Castlederg area.

Speaking earlier at Stormont on Wednesday, Mrs Rodgers called for calm.

She said: "I need hardly say that this is an extremely worrying development.

"Our chief veterinary officer spent yesterday at the Standing Veterinary Committee in Brussels preparing for Northern Ireland to be freed from the export controls which presently apply across the whole of the UK.

"The chances of our being able to pursue that at least in the short term now appear to be much weaker."

Meanwhile, the Ulster Farmers' Union has urged the government to establish as soon as possible whether or not the sheep in south Armagh are infected.

The union's president, Douglas Rowe, said farmers now had to reinforce their safeguards.

The police in the Republic of Ireland have confirmed that about 400 extra offficers are to assist with border checks and disease control measures.

Meanwhile 1,300 sheep have been destroyed in County Wexford as a precaution against foot and mouth.

They had been imported from Devon in England.

The current outbreak of foot-and-mouth was first discovered at a farm in Essex last Monday. Twenty-two other farms and abattoirs in England and Wales have since been confirmed as infected.

Farmers had been hoping Northern Ireland could gain an all-clear status, separate from the rest of the UK, so that the province's European exports could resume.

Previous scare

More than 100 farms in the province have been placed under movement restrictions because they had recently imported livestock from Britain.

Ulster Farmers' Union deputy president John Gilliland said farmers should not panic, but he warned them to keep strictly to the department's control measures.

"Keep people off your farm and put disinfectant down. Treat it like a fortress," he said.

More and more events across Northern Ireland are being cancelled or postponed because of the fear that the movements of animals or large numbers of people could help to spread the disease.

Humans are not affected by foot-and-mouth disease although they can carry it.

There has not been an outbreak of the disease in Northern Ireland since 1941.