The North is battling to contain foot-and-mouth disease after authorities confirmed a second outbreak and probed a suspected case.
The Apprentice Boys of Derry, said yesterday it was calling off traditional parades and a major rally scheduled for tomorrow because of the foot-and-mouth alert.
Agriculture Minister Ms Bríd Rodgers has ordered a precautionary cull of more than 4,000 cattle, pigs and sheep and said the outbreak would mean a fresh European Union ban on the province's livestock product exports just a week after they had resumed.
"This development means that Northern Ireland has now lost its regional foot-and-mouth disease (free) status and with it, the ability to export susceptible animals and related products," she told a news conference.
Her department said later that a "hot" suspected oubtreak had been found on a cattle and sheep farm near Cushendall in Country Antrim on the northeast coast.
"Samples have been taken and are on their way to Pirbright (laboratory) and slaughter has already commenced on the farm," Ms Rodgers said in a statement
"This is a huge setback for the whole of Northern Ireland agriculture industry and comes just at a time when our hopes were high that we might have escaped this dreadful scourge," Ms Rodgers added.