A five-mile exclusion zone has been placed around a mid-Ulster farm on which a dead cow displayed symptoms of foot-and-mouth disease. The animal was being examined by veterinary experts last night.
The North's Minister for Agriculture, Ms Brid Rodgers, said that her department's vets believed that the animal might have died of malignant catarrh. The farm was being sealed off as a precaution.
As the examination continued, the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, placed further restrictions on cross-Border trade by designating crossings for non-prohibited agricultural produce coming into the State.
Yesterday, a voluntary ban was placed on all hunting and shooting in the State, agriculture and horticulture colleges were closed and marts in Border counties were banned.
Mr Walsh had earlier expressed relief that the three farms in Northern Ireland which had supplied pigs to the abattoir in Essex in which the outbreak of the disease was discovered had been declared free of foot-and-mouth.
Speaking in Dublin yesterday before the foot-and-mouth scare in mid-Ulster, the EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Mr David Byrne, said that if no cases of the disease were found in the North, the EU ban on the export of animals and animal products from there could be lifted next Tuesday.
The crisis has deepened in Britain, where there are now six confirmed outbreaks of the disease.
The Agriculture Minister, Mr Nick Brown, has imposed a seven-day restriction on the movement of livestock, leading to fears of some food shortages.
The seven-day ban on moving cattle, pigs, sheep and goats was announced amid growing evidence that the disease was spreading in Britain.
Vets believe, however, that they may have identified the source of the outbreak - a farm in Heddon-on-Wall, Northumberland.
Mr Brown has banned hunting until March 2nd and a harecoursing event, the Waterloo Cup, due to start on Monday. Racing at Newcastle on Monday has been abandoned. Thousands of other outdoor events have been cancelled voluntarily.