Bird flu fears: Don’t ring after 9pm or at the weekend

THE Department of Agriculture hotline for reporting suspected cases of the deadly bird flu virus is not manned at weekends or after 9pm on weekdays, it emerged yesterday.

It was also claimed that many of the State’s frontline agencies have not been briefed on how to handle suspected cases.

Hungary yesterday became the latest country to confirm the presence of the deadly H5N1 strain. The virus, which has killed more than 90 people, has also been found in dead swans in France, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Greece and Italy in the last 10 days.