Poultry farmers still need to be prepared to put their birds indoors

IRELAND may escape bird flu despite the virus having swept across Europe over the past few months, according to Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan.

But poultry farmers should be prepared to put their birds indoors which would be one of the first steps taken if the disease reaches Ireland, she said.

In the meantime the European Commission confirmed that farmers forced to destroy their flocks would be compensated in full for the loss and for other measures including disinfection.

The question of vaccinating all poultry will be discussed by the EU expert group today, but Ms Coughlan indicated Ireland was unlikely to opt for this measure.

The minister said she believed that since the wild birds that are spreading the disease do not come to Ireland there was a possibility the country could escape.

“It’s possible that we may escape because almost all the contaminated birds have been mute swans from central Europe and we do not have a pattern of getting these birds,” she said following a meeting of EU Agriculture Ministers in Brussels. But she admitted that most of her fellow ministers were not as optimistic as she was about the disease spreading.

“There was an inevitability around the room that the disease is moving closer because of the cold winter and the birds flying south. The spring migration is the next concern,” she said.

France, the Netherlands and Holland are considering vaccinating their poultry, but it is very expensive and difficult since each bird has to be injected. There was also the issue of the vaccination masking the virus in birds that can then infect other fowl.

“Traditionally Ireland has not vaccinated animals against diseases but we are looking at the implication of housing birds,” she said.

Ireland has €80 million commercial poultry producing meat and eggs with the vast majority on 1,100 farms. Many of them would not have facilities to house them round the clock. “We have a welfare issue here,” she said.

After 12 weeks indoors they would also lose their organic and free-range status under the current rules which the commission and the expert group has agreed to look at today.

The message from the commission is that poultry is safe to eat provided it has been properly cooked. Agriculture Commissioner Marian Fischer-Boel said she will consider Italy’s case to allow compensation for poultry suppliers as sales have fallen by 70%.