RUC patrols intercepted six illegal movements of livestock over the weekend, the North's Minister of Agriculture has said.
Speaking to the Assembly, Ms Brid Rodgers also said 19 people were being investigated over illegal livestock importation.
Ms Rodgers could not say where the alleged offences took place but told the Assembly checks of imported sheep had been extended back from February 1st "to be sure" foot-and-mouth had not arrived sooner.
Her Department had now found that between January 11th and 19th "there were 2,200 sheep brought legally into Northern Ireland, but they were traded illegally".
Her Department had set up a contingency plan "to ensure it can cope should there be widespread further outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease". Private vets had been contracted.
She said a widespread outbreak could pose difficulties with slaughtering and disposing of animals. Her officials had been in talks to "identify a possible site or sites for mass burial, should that be needed".
Ms Rodgers said she hoped to lift restrictions on farmers moving cattle across roads to new grazing areas. They would be moved under strict veterinary supervision and she was "trying to allow it during this week". She said £1.3 million had been paid in compensation to farmers involved in the first outbreak, at Meigh in south Armagh.
Ms Rodgers said there was no truth in stories that officials from her Department had co-operated in fraud with farmers in the area. Mr Paul Berry of the DUP claimed officials had ordered others investigating fraud away from the site of the cull.
A number of members highlighted apparent disparities between the approach taken by governments North and South of the Border in tackling the disease, but Ms Rodgers said the policy for dealing with suspect diseases was based on eradication, as in the Republic.
She told Mr Conor Murphy of Sinn Fein that "our policy is exactly the same as that in the Republic, that is when we come across a suspect case our vets make a judgment as to whether it is likely to be foot-and-mouth or whether there are circumstances which point to it not being foot-and-mouth.
"If there is less concern about it then we restrict the farm until we get a result, if there is more concern then we err on the side of caution and we cull - and that's precisely what happens in the South."