The following is the statement issued by Northern Ireland's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development last night:
Brid Rodgers, Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, has announced that further concerns have arisen in relation to the suspect case of FMD near Cookstown in County Tyrone.
The laboratory at Pirbright has now reported that the FMD virus has been isolated from the suspect cattle.
Mrs Rodgers said: "This is terribly disappointing after the good news we had yesterday. We cannot take any chances with Foot and Mouth Disease and on the evidence from the laboratory, we must now regard this as a positive case."
The Minister continued: "In view of this new evidence, I am not prepared to take any further chances and I have instructed the Veterinary Service to begin immediately to slaughter the animals on the outfarm which were showing symptoms yesterday and animals on another outfarm. Samples have been taken from these animals and sent to Pirbright. I will announce the results as soon as they are available.
"I want to re-enforce my advice to all farmers that this case is now to be regarded as the second outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease in Northern Ireland and I urge them to be as vigilant as possible.
"The Veterinary Service has already begun an investigation into how the virus was introduced at the farm."