FMD found in Ireland

By Andrew Bushe

DUBLIN — Foot and Mouth disease has spread to the Republic and a major contingency plan has swung into action to try to contain the outbreak to a farm on the Cooley Peninsula in County Louth.

Announcing that two cases had been confirmed in sheep, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern described it as "a major disappointment given the intensity of the efforts by all sectors of society to keep the disease out of Ireland."

The Irish Farmers Association president, Tom Parlon, said it was "a major body blow to the whole country."

Ireland has not had a case of the disease since 1941 and wide-ranging restrictions had been in force to try to protect the country from an outbreak.

Confirmation of an outbreak is the "doomsday situation" that has been feared for weeks. It will have a multi-million-pound impact on the food and tourism industries just at a time when there were hopes that precautionary controls could be eased.

As the disease has spread like wildfire through Britain and also turned up in France and Holland, there had been optimism a "fortress Ireland" policy would protect the country’s disease-free status and the vital agri-business industry. It contributes about 10 percent of GDP.

Ahern delivered the dreaded news when the Dail session opened on Thursday. "The results of two of the samples taken from a flock in County Louth proved positive for foot-and-mouth disease," he said.

He said it was a "secondary outbreak" in the same exclusion zone that was put in place straddling the border after the Northern Irish case was confirmed on March 1. Until now, it had been the only case on the island.

Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh said there is a "realistic hope" the disease could be contained within the area of the infected farm on the self-contained peninsula.

He said there will now be an "aggressive, strategic slaughter" of livestock in the region.

"There has been remarkable national solidarity on this issue," he said. "We need that solidarity more than ever now."

The farm affected is two kilometers within the 10-kilometer surveillance zone for the Northern Irish case at Meigh in South Armagh.

Sheep with suspicious symptoms were found on the farm during an inspection last Tuesday. The animals had also been examined several times before — including last Friday — and had been clear of symptoms.

It had been hoped that the mouth blisters discovered on Tuesday could have been caused by nitrate fertilizer spread on fields.

A major standby plan to seal off the area went into operation after the confirmation was given by a UK laboratory that had tested samples.

Vets culled 138 sheep on the farm on Tuesday and placed a restriction on the farm and surrounding area. A major control center had been established at the beginning of the month close by the outbreak at Ballymascanlon, outside Dundalk.

The restrictions were tightened further on Wednesday when no animal movement permits were issued for the whole of the county.

Parlon said the outbreak was linked to the case in Northern Ireland and the cause was the original importation of infected sheep from Carlisle in the north of England in February.

"It is that original infection that was hibernating and growing under the surface," Parlon said. "Thankfully, it is the area where there was extreme vigilance by the vets. Now we have to make sure we confine it to that exclusion zone."

Parlon said there was no indication of sheep-to-sheep contact and how it spread will have to be investigated.