Germany has no new cases of the livestock illness foot-and-mouth disease with a suspect case on Thursday not confirmed, German agriculture minister Cem Oezdemir said on German radio on Friday.

France has reinforced checks for foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and issued alerts to veterinarians after an outbreak of the highly contagious virus was detected in cattle in Germany last week, prompting trade bans from several countries.

Germany’s agriculture industry faces sales losses of about €1 billion ($1.03 billion) due to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease that has led to export restrictions, farm cooperatives group DRV said.

Germany’s agriculture ministry said on Wednesday it expects meat and dairy product exports to the European Union to continue despite a case of the foot-and-mouth disease affecting livestock being confirmed last week.

Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have restricted animal imports from an area of Germany following an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. A government ban on pig, sheep and cattle imports from Germany announced on Tuesday did not apply to Northern Ireland.

Germany’s farming and food industry is likely to have lost about 1 billion euros ($1 billion) of business following an outbreak of the livestock illness foot-and-mouth disease, the head of the farming cooperatives association told German media on Thursday.

Germany has not found any further cases of foot-and-mouth disease, agriculture minister Cem Oezdemir said on Wednesday, adding that experts were working day and night to establish the source of the country's first outbreak in decades.