Livestock smugglers were today condemned for putting the farming industry at risk in Northern Ireland.
The Northern Ireland Agriculture Minister Mrs Brid Rodgers told the Northern Ireland Assembly that she wanted to express "disgust at the irresponsible way in which a very small number of people have behaved.
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Northern Ireland Agriculture Minister Mrs Brid Rodgers |
"As a result the whole of the farming industry in Northern Ireland, and indeed in Ireland as a whole, has now been imperilled."
The minister confirmed the outbreak in the province was caused by sheep taken there illegally from England.
Her department is maintaining regular contacts with the RUC and army to step up their measures against those who broke restrictions on livestock movement, she said.
So far, there has been only one confirmed case of foot-and-mouth disease in Northern Ireland - found in illegally shipped sheep on a farm in South Armagh.
Of the 21 sheep slaughtered on the farm in Meigh Co Armagh, only one was confirmed as having the virus.
Department of Agriculture vets have now slaughtered 1,000 pigs, 400 cattle and 250 sheep in the North as a precautionary measure.
Today'S cull was outside the exclusion zone put around the Meigh farm, but on land owned by a farmer who also farms inside the restricted area.
Mrs Rodgers also hit out at "politically-motivated criticism" of her officials' handling of the foot-and-mouth outbreak.
The Minister said during a statement to the Assembly that she resented those who had criticised her department as it tried to deal with the epidemic.
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She said "There has been some ill-informed and, I dare say, politically-motivated criticism of my department's response to this crisis.
"I resent the fact that some people choose to make mischief at a time when we should all be devoting all of our efforts to dealing with this most serious disease situation."
She said where people have co-operated and have obeyed the rules, her department had acted "swiftly and decisively."
But she said: "It is difficult to take action where the presence of animals is not known or where misleading information has been given as to their whereabouts.
"In due course the full process of law will be taken against those responsible."
The minister confirmed investigations were continuing into an illegal consignment of sheep from Scotland which is believed to have been dispersed in the south of Co Derry.
Earlier she urged the province not to let its guard down by thinking the foot-and-mouth crisis was over in the region.
She said there was "room for hope'' but insisted ``let me make it clear there is no room for complacency''.
Mrs Rodgers added: "We are now four or five days without a positive, and that is good news, but we are by no means out of the woods.'' PA