Eighteen cattle that were taken from a farm in west Cork last month have been recovered.
The herd, whose owner previously said were worth around €30,000, were identified during a search operation involving gardaí and investigators from the Department of Agriculture in the Ballydehob area today.
The operation remains ongoing into this evening, and it is understood that two men have been spoken to about the incident.
No arrests have been made.
Investigators are confident that DNA tests will confirm that the cattle recovered are the same as the ones reported stolen.
The 12 Freisian heifers and six Freisan bulls were taken from dairy farmer Brian Lawlor's farm at Lakelands near Skibbereen at the end of November.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland at the time, Mr Lawlor said that he initially thought the cattle had broken out before realising they had been taken.
"The clever thing that they did was take all the cattle from one pen and when they were finished stealing our cattle, they moved other cattle to fill that pen to make it look less obvious.
"We didn't realise straight away that we had cattle missing until we went counting," he said.
