A report into the North's foot-and-mouth outbreak has criticised the Department of Agriculture for allowing illegal sheep importation on a massive scale.
It also found that Northern Ireland farmers made a net gain of almost £7 million sterling in compensation payments aimed at offsetting the impact of the epidemic.
According to the report, carried out by consultants PriceWaterhouseCooper, tens of thousands of sheep, which were meant to go to slaughterhouses, had disappeared - most likely onto farms - due to "inadequate controls". While the Department did not do enough to prevent the arrival of the virus, its subsequent handling of the outbreak was, however, described as "appropriate and measured".
There were four confirmed cases of the epidemic in March and April of last year in Northern Ireland - one in south Armagh, two in Co Tyrone and one in the Glens of Antrim. More than 50,000 animals were culled.
In 2000 and in early 2001, more than 60 per cent of lambs shipped to the North for slaughter failed to arrive at their designated meat plants, according to the report. "Effectively 35,000 lambs imported into Northern Ireland - allegedly for slaughter - cannot be satisfactorily accounted for."
The report also points out "systematic abuse" of animal import licensing legislation. However, the ban on trade and livestock movement between the North and Britain and any other countries once the disease had been diagnosed in England - and even before any outbreaks in the North - had "cocooned Northern Ireland from a potentially catastrophic" foot-and-mouth outbreak, it added.
A partner at PriceWaterhouseCooper, Mr Graham Cash, said while the Department's response to the outbreak was "measured and strategic", better policing might have avoided the crisis altogether.
"There is evidence that tighter controls at points of entry, together with rigorous checks as to where animals were destined, would have detected the consignment [from Carlisle in England], subsequently found to be infected, thus preventing the outbreak of foot-and-mouth in Northern Ireland," he added.
The cost of foot-and-mouth to the North's public sector is estimated at £24 million, including £11.25 million in staff costs and £7 million in compensation payments - a financial gain for the agriculture industry.
"This is because agri-money compensation, which in the absence of foot-and-mouth is unlikely to have been paid, more than offset the impact of foot-and-mouth on the producers' sector," the report states.
Welcoming the report, the Agriculture Minister, Ms Bríd Rodgers, acknowledged that import controls had been inadequate. But she stressed that her Department was already in the process of remedying the situation when the outbreak occurred.