Only one of the 159,868 blood tests taken from sheep following the State's only outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease proved inconclusive, the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development said yesterday.
In all, serological tests were carried out on 3,957 flocks to determine if the disease was present in sheep in the Republic and nearly 160,000 samples were taken. Of the 1,232 samples sent to the Pirbright International Laboratories in Surrey, only one was found to be inconclusive and all the remaining tests proved to be negative.
"Tissue samples were taken from the flock in Co Wexford where the inconclusive test had been taken and these were sent to Pirbright. The sample was then found to be negative," said a Department spokesman. "These results would appear to indicate there is no active foot-and-mouth virus in the national flock."
The spokesman said the Department had gone far beyond the international requirements to prove that the disease was no longer here and had carried out over 100,000 tests, more than was required.
However, he warned that the Irish public and farmers in particular, must be on the alert to prevent the disease entering the country State again from Britain where there is still a problem in wiping it out.
The deputy president of the Irish Farmers' Association, Mr John Dillon, last night called for measures in the forthcoming Budget to compensate farmers for a variety of difficulties encountered in the current year. He said that foot-and-mouth disease was still the greatest threat to farming and the economy.