Experts bid to allay bird flu fears

The recent deaths of four people from bird flu in Turkey has not increased the risk of the disease spreading to Ireland, experts said today.

Officials from the Department of Agriculture and Food told an Oireachtas committee that there were already a number of measures in place to minimise the risk of the spread of the disease.

These include the registration of all bird flocks, public information campaigns and documents prepared for poultry owners and health officials.

The EU ban on live imports of commercial birds is being enforced in Ireland and there was constant monitoring and assessment of developments, Seamus Healy of the Department said.

“The recent sad events in Turkey do not alter the risks of the flu being introduced in Ireland,” Mr Healy said.

He said travel advice to Turkey for tourists remained the same: to avoid live wild birds and poultry markets, and to ensure food was cooked properly.

The chances of a traveller picking up the disease while abroad was negligible, Dr Darina O’Flanagan of the Health Service Executive said.

The World Health Organisation has not changed its assessment of the disease, which still does not spread easily from one person to another, Mr Healy said.

And while there would be increased migration of wild birds in the spring, he said it appeared there was limited risk of birds bringing the disease from Africa as there was no evidence it had spread there.

“We are satisfied that the bio-security arrangements we have are robust and effective to combat animal and bird diseases.”

But he said: “In the event of an outbreak we would activate certain measures we had during foot-and-mouth and there would be co-ordination of all the relevant agencies.”

According to the World Health Organisation, there have been 151 cases of the potentially deadly H5N1 strain of the virus with 82 deaths.

Department of Health Representatives told the committee told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Food they were in the process of stockpiling 1 million doses of antivirals, with 600,000 already distributed.

While it is impossible to provide a vaccine for a mutation of the avian flu until it occurs, Teresa Cody of the Department of Health said they were actively looking at pre-purchasing drugs which would be developed in response to a global pandemic of fu.