Private practice vets are being drafted in to help the North's Department ofAgriculture to stem the foot-and-mouth crisis,it was revealed today.
With speculation growing the latest outbreaks were caused by theillegal movement of sheep, Agriculture Minister Ms Bríd Rodgers said shewould be writing to farmers to urge them to provide information about market purchases.
The move was announced as Ms Rodgers appeared before acommittee at Stormont to explain her Department'spolicies in fighting the spread of the disease.
The North's farming industry was thrown into chaos this week aftertwo new outbreaks were discovered over the Easter break in Ardboe in CoTyrone and in Cushendall in Co Antrim.
Ms Rodgers reassured the committeeany private vets brought into help would be working full-time for her Department so there was noprospect of them carrying the virus on to healthy farms.
She gave a grim assessment of the prospects of further cases andadded that more resources would become available from the North's civilservice if the disease reached epidemic proportions.
"We must be prepared for further disease outbreaks in NorthernIreland and the number will dictate the scale of the resourceproblems we face in dealing with them," she said.
PA