Government concerned about avian flu measures on both sides of Border

Government sources are concerned about the risk of a mismatch between policies to control the spread of avian flu on either side of the Border.

On Wednesday Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue announced an order to farmers and flock keepers to keep birds inside as fears spread of significant outbreaks of bird flu. He said the order was designed to minimise the risk to the poultry industry.

Europe is facing a major outbreak of avian flu, a highly contagious virus among birds. It has already been found to have killed wild birds in Ireland.

Christmas is a vital time of year for the poultry industry with turkey sales. Government sources said they were concerned that Northern Ireland had “critically and...worryingly” not moved to confine flocks in lockstep with Mr McConalogue’s decision. “We generally move in unison with them,” a source said.

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A spokesman for the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland said there was an increased risk of avian influenza “incursion” across Northern Ireland and it had instituted a prevention zone last month as a precautionary step.

“Any decision to require mandatory housing will be based on risk to improve animal health and welfare concerns,” the spokesman said. He said that given there had been only one case of bird flu in a captive bird and a “relatively small” number of positive wild birds, “the Department is satisfied that the point has not yet been reached at which mandatory housing measures are required”.

He said this remains under review and the Department would consider additional steps “if the risk changes significantly”.

A spokesman for the Department of Agriculture in Dublin said it is in continuous contact and works closely with its colleagues in Northern Ireland. “We each take our respective control decisions based on analysis of risk within our own animal populations. The primary risk at present is from wild birds,” he said.

“Farm level biosecurity is the most essential risk mitigation measure needed to minimise the risk of introduction of avian influenza onto any farm. Confinement is an added layer of biosecurity. Apropos movement of poultry between Northern Ireland and Ireland, any such movement is subject to pre-export inspection and certification.”

New regulations governing the order to house flocks in Ireland under the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013 are due to come into force on November 7th.

In a statement on Wednesday, Mr McConalogue said the measures came as there was an “increasing risk to all poultry flocks”, and as a result to the poultry industry from the current strain of the disease.

The department previously confirmed cases of the disease had been found in wild birds along the Irish coast in July, with a recent case detected in a wild bird found inland.

There had also been outbreaks of the new strain of bird flu in captive flocks in coastal areas of Dublin and Wicklow.

The department said outbreaks of the highly pathogenic bird flu had been detected in poultry flocks in the United Kingdom, as well as other countries in Europe.

The department previously issued a similar confinement order over bird flu fears in November last year.

Officials stated there was no evidence of risk to humans from eating poultry at present, following the recent cases in wild birds.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre said although the avian flu causes serious disease in birds, the risk of infection to humans was considered low.

However, the department advised the public not to touch sick or dead wild birds and to report cases to regional veterinary offices.

The Irish Farmers Association’s poultry committee chairman Nigel Sweetnam pointed out that there had been reported cases of avian flu in wild birds along the south and east coast long before the detection of the virus in a swan in Cavan.

“We have been living with it for three of four months now and we have managed to keep it out,” said the Kinsale-based farmer who has a 100,000 strong flock of commercial broilers.

While there had been cases among gannets on the east and south coast, Mr Sweetnam said the worry about the reported case in Co Cavan was that this virulent strain had now arrived in “the heartland of the poultry industry”, which is in counties Monaghan and Cavan.

Another worry was that the widespread flooding and surface water was bringing wild birds closer to commercial farms, he added.

“I just drove down from Dublin and I saw 40-50 fields which were flooded, almost creating new lakes,” he said. Mr Sweetnam said that with practically every farm in Cavan “backing on to some form of lake” there was a need to be alert.

Stressing that there was no risk posed to the human food chair, Mr Sweetnam said everyone needed to be more cautious about food security.

To date 47 million birds in Europe and 48 million birds in the United States have died or been slaughtered because of bird influenza, he said.