NI sheep cull begins

Farmers protested against burial plans for carcasses

A precautionary extended cull of sheep from Northern Ireland's foot-and-mouth restriction zone has started after days of delays.

It is part of the attempt to keep the foot-and-mouth disease at bay and win back the right to export the province's produce.

Department of Agriculture officials are now preparing a site in Newry where the cull of sheep is expected to be held.

Disinfectant mats have been placed across the entrance of the premises owned by the department at Carnbane industrial estate on the outskirts of the town.

Carcasses to to be hauled

It was originally planned that the animals would be destroyed in the exclusion zone.

But after protests by farmers, it is understood the carcasses are now to be transported to Belfast to be disposed of at a rendering plant.

Earlier on Thursday, Northern Ireland agriculture minister Mrs Rodgers said all the concerns of the farmers had been met in relation to the cull.

"They had concerns about a number of things such as disposal and compensation and how it would be paid and how the assessments would be done," she said.

"Those have all been dealt with to their satisfaction and to my satisfaction and the cull will go ahead."

Ulster Unionist Party assembly member Danny Kennedy said he was concerned about reports of some farmers engaging in "hard bargaining" over compensation.

Farmers in Cumbria have been typically receiving up to £80 a sheep but it was claimed that some farmers in Northern Ireland have been demanding over £200 an animal.

The planned cull of the sheep is part of a set of measures to ensure that Northern Ireland achieves a regional disease-free status from the European Commission.

Export move

It has agreed to allow the province's exports of animal products to resume next week.

But this is dependent on the cull of 2,500 sheep within a three-mile radius of the province's only case of foot-and-mouth by next Tuesday.

Earlier this week there were protests over the suggestion that the carcasses of the sheep would be buried at a local tourist attraction, Slieve Gullion Forest Park.

But an outline agreement on how the animals would be slaughtered and disposed of is understood to suggest that lambs would be put down on farms and most sheep would be brought to the central point to be killed.

Brid Rodgers: Concerns of the farmers have been met

The Ulster Farmers' Union president Douglas Rowe has met the Prime Minister Tony Blair at Downing Street. He has urged all farmers to co-operate with the cull.

Meanwhile, in the Irish Republic, a number of suspected foot-and-mouth cases have been given the all clear.

The Irish Department of Agriculture said it had received negative results from suspects in a meat plant in County Wexford and farms in counties Waterford and Laois.

However, tests from another Wexford meat plant and from a farm close to Proleek, are not expected until Friday.

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