The Cork East TD Mr Ned O'Keeffe will not know the results of a BSE test on an animal in his €350,000 dairy herd for a week.
Vets were alerted when an animal on the former food mnister's farm at Ballylough, near Mitchelstown, Co Cork, started to display systems similar to BSE late last month. The tests on the animal's brain are being carried out at the State Laboratory in Abbotstown, Co Dublin.
If the presence of BSE is confirmed, the Fianna Fáil deputy will have to slaughter his entire dairy herd. He is a major supplier to the Dairygold Co-Op in Mitchelstown.
Mr O'Keeffe said yesterday that all he could do now was "wait and hope" that the results of the test would be negative.
No animals will be allowed enter or exit the farm until the results of the tests are known.
Mr O'Keeffe resigned as minister of state at the Department of Agriculture and Food in September 2001 amid claims that he breached the Ethics in Public Office Act by not declaring a conflict of interest during a Dáil vote on bone meal.
Opposition TDs said he should have drawn attention to his shareholding in a pig farm and feed mill during the debate.
Mr O'Keeffe was first elected to the Dáil in 1982, and topped the poll in Cork East in 1997. After 15 years as a backbencher, he was promoted to the position of junior minister at the Department of Agriculture with special responsibility for food in 1997.
He spoke out against the film Babe in 1995 when it was reported that pork consumption in the US had dropped after its release. He called on Irish people to boycott what he described as a "ridiculous and harmful film" and enjoy their ham at Christmas.