RUC and army asked to help in foot-and-mouth fight
Northern Ireland’s Department of Agriculture has appealed to the Army and the RUC for help in a desperate bid to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, it was confirmed today.
Agriculture Minister Brid Rodgers told a Stormont Committee of her fears that the outbreak in Co Louth in the Irish Republic meant that there was an unidentified strain of the disease at large.
She warned that the prospect of Northern Ireland being given special regional status to export to Europe had receded since confirmation that sheep in Co Louth had tested positive.
Mrs Rodgers said her staff and the authorities in the Republic were working hand-in-hand to track down the intermediate source and prevent further spread of the virus.
‘‘While both we and the Republic of Ireland authorities will be doing our utmost to deal with this latest development it is absolutely vital that farmers reinforce the fortress farming measures which I have been advocating since this disease first appeared,’’ she said.
As the new 10km (6.2 miles) surveillance zone around the infected farm extended across the border, Mrs Rodgers warned the committee that this could lead to the slaughter of dangerous in-contact animals in Northern Ireland.
She added that stringent border controls had been put in place to monitor all crossings within the surveillance zone. The Department of Regional Development has been asked to arrange disinfecting procedures on the A1, the main road entering Northern Ireland.
‘‘Needless to say any possibility of easement of the controls which we presently have, or of any regionalised lifting of the export controls on Northern Ireland animals and produce, has now receded for the time being.’’
