A Cavan man has been outlining what a confirmed case of Bluetongue would mean.
Adam Woods, from the Irish Farmers Journal was reacting to a confirmed case of Bluetongue in a cattle herd in Co Wexford at the weekend.
The Department of Agriculture says it increased its testing and surveillance for Bluetongue since the virus was detected in Northern Ireland last month.
Officials from the Department are meeting today to discuss the first outbreak of the virus in the Republic.
Speaking on the Joe Finnegan show this morning, Mr Wood said that the disease cannot infect humans.
He outlined some of the signs and symptoms of the disease.
"It's quite an unusual disease. Some of the outbreaks in Northern Ireland, there were no symptoms. So the animals were asymptomatic. It's my understanding that in this case as well, there were no symptoms in these animals either. But the classic symptoms of the disease, and we would see these across Europe, it's like sort of blisters around the nose area, animals in poor form, maybe a temperature, you could get milk drop and in severe cases, you can get mortality. But to be honest, in cattle, it's not as pronounced as regards mortality or real severe, and we'll say signs of the disease. In sheep, it tends to be a little bit more prone to hit sheep."
