Northern Ireland batons down hatches to avoid foot-and-mouth spread
A new fortress regime has been put in place in Northern Ireland after a third outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed.
Agriculture Minister Brid Rodgers says farmers must seal off their barns and halt all animal movements if the province is to avoid the virus spreading as it has in Great Britain.
Ms Rodgers has described the situation as extremely serious.
The Northern Ireland Chief Veterinary Officer Bob McCracken has confirmed that none of the cases to date had been wind-borne, but said the source was still being investigated.
Mr McCracken added: "The virus has got onto these three premises though the gate or over the hedge."
Mr McCracken said controlling it would be "through the sealing-off of every farm in Northern Ireland if we are to stop similar cases".
The latest outbreak has been confirmed near Cushendall, Co Antrim. It has been identified less than two days after a case in Ardboe, Co Tyrone.
Culls are in progress at both sites and the Army was called in to help incinerate infected carcasses at the site in Co Tyrone.
The only other instance of foot-and-mouth in Northern Ireland was six weeks ago in a flock of sheep at Meigh in South Armagh.
Officials believe they had succeeded in containing the disease after that outbreak and the EU export ban was lifted in most of Northern Ireland two weeks ago because the disease had not recurred.
The Republic has had only one case, just across the border from the Meigh outbreak at Proleek, Co Louth, three weeks after the disease was detected in South Armagh.
The return of the virus to the island of Ireland has prompted Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh to order stricter border controls in a bid to prevent the disease spreading.
