Hopes high for disease-free status

Sheep are taken for slaughter in the Louth area

The president of the Ulster Farmers' Union says there is a good chance the European Union will soon allow most of Northern Ireland to be declared foot-and-mouth free.

Douglas Rowe was speaking on Monday, a day before a meeting of the Standing Veterinary Committee in Brussels, when the province's application for regionalisation will be discussed.

On Thursday, the EU approved regional disease-free status for 25 counties in the republic, saying trade sanctions would only be confined to produce from County Louth.

So far, both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have each had one outbreak of the livestock disease.

These have been at Meigh, in south Armagh, and just across the border at Ravensdale in County Louth.

UFU president Douglas Rowe told BBC Radio Ulster they had been pushing hard for regionalisation, which could see the resumption of meat and dairy exports from Northern Ireland.

"We want the same treatment as the rest of this island and not only the rest of this island but France and Holland have got the same treatment," he said.

"So we really want to make sure that we get regionalisation, that the biggest possible area of Northern Ireland is declared free of foot-and-mouth to allow us to go back to normal marketing."

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland's agriculture minister Brid Rodgers has said that sheep, thought to have been missing from the consignment at Meigh, have now been accounted for by the authorities in the Irish Republic.

In a statement to the assembly on Monday, she said she was relieved the sheep had now been traced.

The comment came as more than 13,000 sheep and 3,000 cattle were being slaughtered in a three-mile radius of the Louth abattoir, where the virus was detected last week.

Irish agriculture minister Joe Walsh is to decide later whether to carry out a wider cull in the Cooley peninsula area, as a precaution against the disease.

Imported sheep

On Saturday, the results of tests from a sheep suspected of having foot-and-mouth on a farm in Kilmacrennan, County Donegal, were found to be negative.

However, four farms in County Meath cordoned off by the Irish police, are still under surveillance.

Sheep on the farms in Trim, Longwood and Fairyhouse were destroyed on Saturday.

It is suspected some sheep there could have been imported from Britain.

It is understood they were not showing symptoms of foot-and-mouth.

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland's Agriculture Minister Brid Rodgers has expressed surprise about comments by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern on Saturday, criticising disease control measures at Northern Ireland and British ports and airports.

Mr Ahern asked UK Prime Minister Tony Blair to improve controls to prevent the further spread of the disease when they had discussions on the fringes of a European Union summit in Stockholm.

But Mrs Rodgers said on Sunday: "Whilst the frontline of defence against foot-and-mouth disease is the farm gate, port controls have been a priority in Northern Ireland throughout this crisis.

Brid Rodgers: "Agriculture departments are co-operatng north and south"

"There has been very close liaison between the agriculture departments north and south throughout the crisis, including discussion at both official and ministerial levels about port controls, and at no time have any concerns about those controls been raised with me."

In Britain, the army is preparing a mass grave in Cumbria for 500,000 sheep which are being slaughtered in an attempt to wipe out the disease.

The government is also expected to announce a ban on the use of pig swill, which is being blamed for causing the outbreak.

The Department of Agriculture can be contacted on its helpline numbers on 02890 524279 or 02890 524590 between 0830 - 2100 GMT.