The foot-and-mouth test results from a calf in Co Cork which are being examined in Pirbright Laboratory, in Surrey, will not be available until this afternoon, the Department of Agriculture said yesterday.
It said the animal, which was suffering from lesions on the tongue, had not been slaughtered, which would indicate that veterinary officials were not unduly concerned.
However, the farm, near Drumcollogher, is still under restriction, as is the farm in Co Limerick from which the calf was purchased - and while the Department stressed that samples were being taken as a precautionary move, it said samples were not sent to the British laboratory for no reason.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that more than a quarter of the State's 43,000 sheep farmers are not being paid their 2001 ewe premium because their claims are still being investigated by a special Department of Agriculture and EU team.
A Department spokesman said yesterday 74 per cent of the applicants were being paid this week, but there were still queries on the remainder.
He said the EU anti-fraud investigation unit is working with the Department on the reconciliation of claims with the number of animals being held on farms. It will be some time before the final figures are known and payments made.
"We are still awaiting replies from farmers we have written to asking for details of sales of ewes from the introduction of permits for slaughter under the foot-and-mouth regulations up to April 7th last," he said.
"Because they have not replied does not mean that they do not have the animals, and we are giving them more time to tell us where the animals are or if they have been slaughtered."
Also yesterday, the British Meat and Livestock Commission warned that the farming industry must "keep hammering" at foot-and-mouth to prevent a full-scale resurgence of the disease this winter.
Five new cases of foot-and-mouth were confirmed this week in Cumbria, in the north of England, and Powys, in Wales, bringing the total in Britain to 1,885. The Commission, meeting with delegates from the Welsh farming industry in Aberystwyth, said the disease had not been beaten and there could be difficult times ahead.
Commission spokesman Mr Jon Bullock told Welsh delegates that when sheep were brought down from the hills to the lowlands in winter and mixed with other animals there could be an increase in the number of cases of foot-and-mouth.
The Prince of Wales has voiced his concern for the future of the farming industry, which he said was facing an "ongoing nightmare" as a result of foot-and-mouth. As he launched a campaign to revitalise the countryside, describing rural dwellers and farmers as some of Britain's "most treasured national assets", Prince Charles said the "anguish" felt by farmers went on and on as foot-and-mouth continued to spread.
Farmers had felt the full force of the economic downturn in the industry in recent years and foot-and-mouth could return in large numbers this autumn and winter, he said.
But he added: "If foot-and-mouth has taught people anything it is that there is an intimate connection between the land, the animals and themselves."