All-island bid to keep bird flu out of Ireland

THE battle to keep bird flu out of Ireland is being tackled on a north-south basis.

Most of the poultry industry is along the border counties where bio-security levels and vigilance on farms is now at a high level.

Parallel precautionary action is being taken by the authorities north and south to minimise the risk.

Food Minister Brendan Smith, speaking with reporters at the Farm Machinery Show in Punchestown, Co Kildare, yesterday, said this level of co-operation will continue.

Almost half of the€150 million poultry industry in the south is located in his Cavan-Monaghan constituency. It is very sizeable industry that is hugely regulated and works to the highest standards at both grower and processor levels.

Mr Smith said there is ongoing co-operation and continuous contact with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland and with the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in London, as well as with the European Commission in Brussels.

He said he was happy with the levels of bio-security being maintained by the poultry industry.

“That has been the way the industry has been working at both producer and processor levels. Theyappreciate that we need toreassure consumers that poultry is a very safe and nutritious product and that people need have no worries whatsoever,” he said.

Meanwhile, Agriculture and Food Minister Mary Coughlan spoke yesterday with her opposite number in Britain, Secretary of State, David Miliband.

The Avian Influenza Expert Group, under the chairmanship of Professor Michael Monaghan, met again yesterday to review events since the weekend.

Ms Coughlan said that the group concluded that the steps her department had taken were “entirely appropriate.”

Green Party leader Trevor Sargent agreed with the all-Ireland approach.

“The protection of vets and poultry workers must be the number one priority for the Government.

“Studies suggest that the H5N1 virus developed in factory farms. In the medium term, we must reassess how poultry farming is carried out here,” he said.

Mr Sargent said Ms Coughlan must look at encouraging alternatives to the ultra-intensive poultry farming that lets pathogens develop into more deadly strains and to spread rapidly among poultry populations.

Food and Drink Industry Ireland (FDII), the IBEC group that represents the food and drink sector, welcomed the introduction of precautionary measures and the provision of on-farm bio-security information and advice.

Paul Kelly, FDII director of food, said the measures should provide reassurance to consumers.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Mary Harney said there was no evidence to suggest that bird flu could be transmitted from humans to humans and that it is the Irish poultry population that faces the greater danger.