Louth farmer 'in state of shock' at virus news

The owner of the farm at the centre of the State's first current confirmed case of foot-and-mouth has said he is shocked over what happened.

Mr Michael Rice said he was in "a state of shock" and was too upset to say any more.

Another farmer, based close to the address where the disease was confirmed, said the development had halted a period of increasing optimism that the area had evaded the virus.

We had felt we were only a week or so away from being out of danger and this has come as a shot out of the blue. David Kearney, the farmer whose flock has been affected.

Tillage and cattle farmer Mr David Kearney reported: "I am about six or seven miles away on the Cooley peninsula and have been in a restricted area since the outbreak at Meigh across the Border in Co Armagh.

"We had felt we were only a week or so away from being out of danger and this has come as a shot out of the blue. I have more than 200 cattle here and my gut feeling is that they will have to be slaughtered.

"We have been on a bit of a roller coaster since the Meigh outbreak and recently every day had seemed a step away from it. We had hoped the sheep involved today had been affected by nitrogen [fertiliser] rather than foot-and-mouth."

Mr Kearney said if told his herd would have to be destroyed he would understand the position. "You would have to understand. What else can you do? You are a victim of circumstance and have to face up to it."

"If they can restrict this to the Cooley peninsula it will be fantastic."

The chairman of the IFA in Co Louth Mr Raymond O'Malley said: "There is a huge degree of shock here. We thought we could beat this one after three weeks. But we are where we are."

"But we have to get over the initial shock and plan our way forward. Pain will be suffered by many people. We are looking at a very bleak prospect."

PA