As meat factories finished slaughtering all remaining livestock in their lairages last night, food processors were hoping that by today the European Commission would confirm the regionalisation of the ban on Irish food exports to European countries.
Regionalisation - allowed for France and the Netherlands - could mean that only Co Louth, or at worst the adjoining counties as well, would be prohibited from exporting to the rest of the EU. There are four major meat-processing plants in this region.
Live exports to all countries, mainly cattle, which last year were worth £160 million, have been suspended.
Most alcoholic drinks are not banned but there is still some confusion about cream liqueurs for EU markets.
Food company shares plunged but later recovered somewhat on the Stock Exchange yesterday. Mr Don Walshe, senior economist at Goodbody Stockbrokers, said the expected impact should have been less than this shock reaction.
"If share prices got hit relatively quickly, we would expect them to come back," he said.
He also suggested continuing the relaxation on human movement.
The EU accounts for 70 per cent of animal product exports, worth £2 billion, and £125 million of live exports.
Exports of animal products to non-EU countries were worth £900 million last year - a figure which will be down this year because of last year's BSE scare.
Japan, followed by Russia, is the most valuable of non-EU markets currently trading with Ireland, while the US is biggest for dairy products. The Government is still negotiating with the US government on the conditions under which dairy exports will be accepted, negotiations which started after the British outbreak.
The Irish food industry is worth £11 billion annually and almost £6 billion of food and drink is exported.
Mr Michael Duffy, chief executive of Bord Bia, said that as cases of disease have been found in other EU countries, he hoped inter-country trade could resume at the earliest opportunity.
Mr Ciaran Fitzgerald, director of the Food and Drink Federation, insists that Ireland must get regionalisation.
"It will be grim for people in Co Louth. There will be an awful lot of restrictions in the food area and also for non-food companies. But we still have a food-producing industry in the other 25 counties," he says.
Mr John Kane, national industrial secretary of SIPTU, which has up to 20,000 members working in the agrifood sector, says the outbreak could have horrendous ramifications for workers, not just in the meat and dairy industries but in tourism, catering, racing and almost every part of the private sector.
Workers already have been laid off in one meat plant in the Carlingford area, while hundreds had been laid off because of the BSE scare.