Migrating birds ‘biggest flu threat to Ireland’

MIGRATING wild birds are still seen as the most likely source of avian flu being introduced to Ireland.

Ireland could also face legal action by the European Commission over a partial ban on imports of British poultry following discovery of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in England, an EU official said yesterday.

Ireland announced on Monday that we were not allowing imports of poultry from Britain for “gatherings and shows” as a precautionary measure.

The ban did not include birds from British-ruled Northern Ireland.

A spokesman for the European Union, health commissioner Markos Kyprianou, said: “Any ban in this case by an EU country against another EU member is illegal.

“We will be looking into this in more detail, but the procedure as you know is that any breaches of EU law can lead to infringement procedures being taken against that country.”

Meanwhile, Agriculture and Food Minister Mary Coughlan has rejected suggestions that the arrival of the virus in this country is inevitable.

“Let me be very clear. There is no such inevitability,” she told the Dáil.

Ms Coughlan, replying to Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín O Caoláin in an adjournment debate, said there was, of course, a possibility of avian flu coming here.

“And, as the most likely source of introduction is through migrating wild birds, both my department and I are limited in what we can do to prevent such a possibility,” she said.

Ms Coughlan said their focus, therefore, was on ensuring that all the necessary means were in place to ensure the early detection of any case outbreak.

Their focus is also on the efficient control and management of such a case outbreak, the speedy eradication of the disease and the restoration of the country’s disease-free status.

Ms Coughlan said any threat of the introduction of avian flu into Ireland was one that the Government took very seriously.

She said her department would continue to display a high level of vigilance and alertness.

The minister said the Government strongly values the €150m poultry sector which employs some 6,000 people.

“The measures taken to date are proportionate to the threat posed by the weekend’s developments and take full account of the value and significance of the Irish poultry industry.

“There are no circumstances in which we will compromise that industry through the failure to take appropriate protective measures,” she said.

Meanwhile, a renewed focus is being put on the findings of a surveillance survey of 60,000 wild birds tested for the virus across the European Union last year.

The findings revealed that 741 cases of avian flu, most of them confirmed as the lethal H5N1 strain of the virus, were detected in wild birds in 13 EU member states between February and May.

The peak was reached in March with 362 cases, compared to 200 in February, with cases declining to 162 in April and 17 in May.

The findings found that the most commonly affected wild birds were swans (62.8%), followed by ducks (16.3%), geese (4.5%), birds of prey (3.9%) and others (13%).