The Department of Agriculture yesterday ordered a tightening up of foot-and-mouth controls on ports and airports as officials began an investigation into a possible case of the disease in Co Cork.
Blood and tissue samples from a calf on a farm near Drumcollogher, on the Cork-Limerick border, were sent to Pirbright laboratory, Surrey, on Friday morning when Department staff were called to the farm by a local vet.
He had found lesions on the tongue of a calf that had recently been purchased from a farm in Co Limerick. Following the inspection, samples were sent to Pirbright - the first such samples to be sent there from the Republic in nearly seven weeks.
The farm was sealed off and the calf slaughtered and restriction orders were placed on adjoining farms - and on the farm from which the animal originated. A Department spokesman said these restrictions would remain in place pending the results.
It will be at least four to five days before the results will be known as Pirbright International Laboratory has stopped giving preliminary results on antibody tests, which can be obtained in 12 hours.
News of the suspected case came as the North's Agriculture Minister, Mrs Brid Rodgers, announced a fraud investigation after it was discovered that some sheep farmers in the North had claimed subsidies for animals that did not exist. The discrepancies came to light as a result of the foot-and-mouth related culls in counties Armagh, Antrim and Tyrone earlier this year.
Of the 199 farmers who claimed compensation, 106 had fewer sheep than they claimed for, while 17 had no sheep. Subsidies worth £70,000 sterling were claimed for 4,741 sheep that did not exist. The discrepancies were worst in south Armagh, where, of 93 farmers claiming sheep annual premiums, 58 had fewer than required to meet the quota and 16 had no sheep. The shortfall in the area amounted to 3,187 sheep.
The chairman of the Assembly's Agriculture Committee, the Rev Ian Paisley, described the fraudulent claims, especially in exploitation of the foot-and-mouth crisis, as a "plunge into the depths of utter depravity".
The instruction to the ports and airports in the Republic from the Department of Agriculture in Dublin to maintain the highest possible vigilance were issued because of concern over the ongoing threat from foot-and-mouth disease in Britain.
The Department told the port authorities that new cases continue to be confirmed over a wide area of Britain at a rate of more than 20 cases a week and blood testing had confirmed foot-and-mouth antibodies in sheep.
The circular said the problems in Britain were no longer being highlighted in the media and there was a danger of an upsurge in cases in the early autumn. It said that it was particularly important that entry points from Britain should be strictly monitored, with an increase in the numbers of people and vehicles coming into Ireland. The Department has also appealed to farmers and those in charge of locations where animals are present to be extremely vigilant. "In this regard, it would be disastrous if after all the efforts and sacrifices made by so many over the past five months, the disease were to be reintroduced here," it concluded.