High alert for further spread of foot-and-mouth disease

IRELAND remains on high alert for foot-and-mouth disease amid fears there could be further outbreaks of the disease in Britain.

British Government vets were reported yesterday to have launched a probe into how the virus went unnoticed for 10 days on a farm at the centre of the latest outbreak.

Experts are worried that animals and vehicles moving on or off the farm could easily have spread the highly contagious infection to other areas.