A new search occurred at the Surry home of Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, and it was apparently a surprise to local investigators.

A source close to the ongoing dogfighting investigation says the US Department of Agriculture Office of the Inspector General has a warrant to search the property.

The warrant is from the U.S. Magistrate's office in Richmond and was issued earlier Thursday.

Local authorities were not involved in the search, says the source.

Sgt. Carr with VA State Police says there are several VSP officers out on the scene assisting in the federal search, but this is still solely a federal search. He would not go into detail about what they are doing, but they are there at the request of the US Attorney's office and the US Dept of Agiculture Office of Inspector General.

The officials were reportedly searching for dog carcasses, dogfighting equipment and blood stains.

When 13News stopped by the Commonwealth Attorney's home Thursday, Gerald Poindexter told us to get off his property, with nothing to say about the federal search that caught local contributors to the investigation off-guard.

While investigators removed potential evidence from Vick's property, they have not linked him to the alleged dog fighting.