A VOLUNTARY scheme of vaccination has been introduced by the Department of Agriculture to protect the State's £400 million, poultry industry from the spread of Newcastle Disease from Northern Ireland.
The precautionary measures will apply to the whole State, which has over two million poultry - about 1.8 million hatching birds and over 200,000 free range. The Republic produces between 55 and 60 million poultry a year.
More than 400,000 birds have been slaughtered in seven outbreaks of the disease on farms in the North in the past two weeks. Farmers are compensated for the slaughtered diseased birds, which are incinerated.
The outbreaks have occurred in counties Antrim, Tyrone and Armagh, raising concerns that the highly contagious disease could spread across the Border. The biggest single slaughter was carried out yesterday on a farm near Glarryford, Co Antrim, where 210,000 chickens were killed.
There are about 500 poultry farms in the Republic, employing 2,500 people at the processing level and another 2,000 in the feed and service sector. Between 35 and 40 per cent are in counties Monaghan, Cavan and Louth.
Mr Eddie Keane, chairman of the Irish Farmers' Association's poultry growers' committee, said they were concerned at the situation. It was a big industry and they hoped that the vaccine would work and make the birds immune to the disease.
A spokesman for the Department said the decision had been taken after discussions with the producers, who requested the vaccine. The vaccine - which is in the form of a spray - will be available on prescription only on the advice of the producer's veterinary surgeon.
The Department said there was no risk to humans and stressed that Newcastle Disease affected mainly poultry. In the North, this view was echoed by Mr George "Wright, of Associated Egg Packers, who said people should continue eating chickens and eggs.
The last time there was an outbreak of Newcastle Disease in the Republic was in 1992, in the Swords' area and it was quickly cleared up.
The Department of Agriculture in the North has initiated a massive vaccination programme to the £140 million poultry industry.
Eighteen flocks were destroyed in the last significant outbreak of fowl pest in Northern Ireland in 1991. The poultry and egg industry employs almost 5,000 people in the North.
The disease - a pathogenic virus - is believed to have come to Northern Ireland from migrating birds travelling from northern and eastern Europe, although the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds says this is not proven.
Farmers in the North within a 10 kilometre range of infected farms must vaccinate their flocks, while all others are being asked to carry out the vaccinations voluntarily. The Department is to pay for vaccinations within the exclusion areas. Elsewhere, the farmers must pay.
The Department of Agriculture is working closely with the Northern authorities. Security measures introduced as part of "Operation Matador" to prevent the entry of infected cattle from the North will now be intensified because of Newcastle Disease.