Relief over foot-and-mouth test results

THE country’s agri-food sector was relieved yesterday at reports there was no evidence of foot-and-mouth disease in preliminary tests conducted on samples taken from pigs in Co Carlow.

A Department of Agriculture and Food veterinary official noted symptoms similar to the highly infectious disease in some pigs delivered to Ballon Meats near Tullow.

Department officials and gardaí sealed off the plant and the farm from which the consignment of 12 pigs had come, amid fears that the country was facing a foot-and-mouth crisis for the second time in four years.