Farmers attending the National Ploughing Association Championships at Ballacolla, Co Laois, were greatly relieved yesterday with a late-evening announcement that initial blood tests from a suspect foot-and-mouth case in Britain had proved negative.
The bull had been identified on a farm at Liskeard, Cornwall, and samples had been taken from the animal on Monday and sent to the Pirbright laboratories near London.
The blood tests were confirmed yesterday afternoon as showing negative infection levels.
However, the British authorities said they would wait until the tissue samples had also proved negative before lifting restrictions on the farm.
A five-mile exclusion zone had been set up around the beef farm, and movement in and out of the area had been restricted.
The Minister for Agriculture and Food referred to the suspect case yesterday and said that it should be a timely reminder to farmers to continue to protect their farms against disease.
"Farmers must continue to be vigilant and we will continue to do our job at the ports and other points of entry," Mr Walsh said.
Exotic food imports, the cause of the Britain's largest outbreak last year, still posed a threat, and officials at airports and ports in Ireland seized 20 tonnes of such foods every month.
Ms Sue Potter, at Britain's Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said final confirmation of the animal's condition would be released within the next four days.
"We can't afford to relax until we get the final laboratory results through," she said, and urged farmers not to forget their bio-security or the movement restrictions.