Ulster to lift livestock movement ban.

Restrictions on the movement of livestock in Northern Ireland introduced in the wake of the foot-and-mouth crisis were being eased today.

Farmers will be allowed to apply for licences to move cattle, sheep, pigs and goats, but only between their own various holdings and not farther than 10km (6.2 miles), and only on grounds of welfare.

Restrictions on the movement of horses is also being eased under moves introduced by Stormont Agriculture Minister Brid Rodgers as part of measures to return some degree of normality to the province.

Northern Ireland has had only a single case of the disease, a sheep at Meigh in South Armagh more than a month ago.

A cull of some 2,500 sheep in the control zone around the affected farm was largely completed tonight and should open the way for the resumption of meat and dairy exports from the province this week.

A spokesman for the Department of Agriculture in Belfast said the ‘‘vast bulk’’ of the three-day cull had been completed. Final checks would be carried out across the restriction zone to see no sheep had been missed.

The animals were taken to a department facility in Newry, Co Down slaughtered and then moved to Belfast to be rendered.

The cull was one of a number of conditions insisted on by the EU Standing Veterinary Committee when they gave Northern Ireland regional status within the UK to allow exports to begin again after a four-week gap.

The Northern Ireland Chief Veterinary officer Bob McCracken will go before the committee on Tuesday to tell them the cull has been completed and to confirm that there have been no further outbreaks of foot-and-mouth since the lone case at the end of February.

The committee should then confirm that exports from all are as but the South Armagh restriction zone can recommence.

Despite the easing of movement restrictions within Northern Ireland tight bans remain on livestock movements across the Irish border and from mainland Britain into the province.

The agriculture department is determined to do everything it can to prevent infection arriving in the province from Britain through air or sea ports.

However tourism facilities have largely reopened and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board is set to mount a drive to win back business which has put the industry into crisis in recent weeks.

They will initially target people in Britain and Ireland urging them to visit the province using the slogan that it is disease free.