Airborne spread of the virus may have caused the increased number of cases at Anglesey, a farming organisation says.
Anglesey is 60 miles off the Republic's coast. Scientists say the virus can spread by wind over distances of 60 km over land and 250 km over sea, depending on prevailing weather conditions. When the disease was first confirmed in Anglesea on February 1st, the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, described it as "particularly worrying".
Met Eireann said yesterday the current weather conditions meant the chance of the virus spreading by wind to this State are slim.
The Welsh authorities are "finding it difficult to trace the spread" around Anglesey, a spokeswoman for the National Farmers' Union, Cymru, said, adding that not all of the new outbreaks were linked to animal movement, the primary means of virus transfer. An epidemiologist is currently in Anglesey trying to establish how the disease is spreading.
There are now 11 confirmed cases on the island. A total of 27 cases have been confirmed throughout Wales, the Welsh Rural Affairs Minister, Mr Carwyn Jones, said yesterday. There are also 16 suspected cases in Wales.
Mr Jones said outbreaks of the virus in Anglesey were causing alarm. "Veterinary officers are looking carefully at the situation. The trend in the spread is causing come concern" because the disease had been found on common land, he said.
Chief veterinary officer, Mr Tony Edwards, conceded the slaughter of sheep in Anglesey was an "option that we might have to consider now it has reached parts of the open land". The state veterinary service in Wales has said all sheep that were at Welshpool market on February 19th, and all those on the holdings where they have been held since, must be destroyed.
These animals are currently being traced; no date has been set for the cull but it was "imminent", said a spokeswoman for the National Assembly.
The disease in Wales was first confirmed on February 1st at an abattoir at Gaerwen, Anglesey, which has since been sealed off as an infected area and the 3,459 animals there slaughtered.
Welsh farmers' moral is "absolutely on the floor", said the farming spokeswoman. "There were seven confirmed cases at the end of last week and we thought we had it confined, but it's up to 27 now. It's really getting a grip. There is an awful feeling among farmers. They are just waiting and waiting." Restrictions on tourism are also harming farmers, many of whom have diversified into agritourism, the spokeswoman said. - Additional reporting by PA