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.

The outbreak of food-and-mouth disease in Germany could have wide-ranging implications. Here's what will happen step-by-step.

Berlin said Wednesday it was working "day and night" to find the source of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak that has led several countries to stop German meat imports.

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.

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 on Friday registered three cases of foot-and-mouth disease in water buffalo on a farm near Berlin, the country's first reported cases of the livestock disease since 1988.

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.

Foot-and-mouth disease has been found in Germany in a herd of water buffalo in Hönow, Brandenburg, just outside Berlin. This is, reports Reuters, the first time the disease has been found in the country in almost 40 years.

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.