The first foot-and-mouth scare for more than a week emerged this evening in Co Louth, 25 miles from the location of the Republic's sole outbreak since the start of the crisis.
The latest alert involved sheep from a farm near Dunleer, close to the main road between Dublin and Belfast, that could have been in contact through a nearby market, with suspect animals from Northern Ireland.
Blood samples from the affected sheep have been sent to foot-and-mouth experts at Pirbright, Surrey.
But Department of Agriculture officials stressed that the action being taken was "purely precautionary" and said there was no particular cause for concern about the tests being carried out.
Last week, the Republic was declared officially free of the farm animal disease at the end of a 30-day period following confirmation of the lone case in Co Louth's Cooley Peninsular.
During the weeks since that case, a number of samples from potential suspect animals have been examined at Pirbright, but there have been no positive results.
In the wake of last week's move, a number of restrictions imposed as part of nationwide emergency efforts to head off the spread of the disease from Britain or Northern Ireland, have been eased.
PA