Horse racing:Ireland's racing authorities are closely monitoring the foot-and-mouth scare in Britain but a Turf Club spokesman said yesterday it is "business as usual" for the sport, which has races at Cork and Naas this afternoon.
Friday night's announcement of a foot-and-mouth outbreak on a farm in Surrey provoked initial fears of a repeat of the 2001 disaster, when there was no racing in Ireland for seven weeks and the government was forced into requesting that Irish-trained horses not be transferred to and from Britain.
However, there now appears to be increasing confidence that harsh measures to stop the spread of the virus to this country will not be needed.
"The vibes we are getting from England are that this science laboratory near the farm is the possible source of the outbreak and, if that is the case, there is a good chance it can be contained on the farm in question," Turf Club chief executive Denis Egan said yesterday.
"At the moment within racing here, it's a case of business as usual. We are monitoring the situation and we are in constant contact with the Department of Agriculture and the British Horseracing Authority [BHA] in England."
The racing authorities in Britain have also moved to calm fears that there could be a major impact on the sport in the manner of six years ago or in 1967-1968, when there were significant disruptions to racing in Britain and Ireland.
Travel restrictions have been placed on cattle, sheep and pigs but there are no restrictions on the transport of horses.
"We are in discussions with the Turf Club and France Galop, and we will update trainers as soon as we know the position on horses based in Britain running in France and Ireland. We are closely monitoring developments," said a BHA spokesman.
The authorities here believe valuable lessons have been learned since the last foot-and-mouth crisis.
"We will, if necessary, implement a series of measures," Mr Egan said. "They would include restrictions on types of bedding, for example. But we are a long way from that."