Warning over bird flu outbreak compensation

The Government could face compensation claims from the poultry industry if the bird flu damages business here, Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan said today.

The virus has so far had little impact on the state’s €150m sector but consumer demand has plummeted by 70% in Italy, where the H5N1 strain was confirmed last week.

Ms Coughlan met with Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel and EU Agriculture ministers in Brussels yesterday.

She said today: “The Commissioner did indicate that there may need to be further flexibility on the basis of the impact it may have in the creation of losses to the poultry sector and she would evaluate all those in the context of how things progress over the next while.”

Although individual member states would normally have to absorb losses, the minister suggested the Commission may be able to release EU funds.

“She did indicate that if we did have a very, very serious situation and we had to work together on this, she may have to seek permission from the parliament to move into more flexible ways of dealing with the issue.”

The Irish poultry industry, which is largely self-sufficient, represents 3% of gross national output.

“We are very concerned about the issue for the poultry industry here... that’s why we’ll be working very closely with our European partners.” the minister added.

“It is important to avoid the hysterical situation in Italy, for example, where it [poultry consumption] has plummeted by 70 per cent“.

The deadly H5N1 virus has already been found in dead swans in France, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Greece and Italy in the last 10 days.

However Ms Coughlan insisted that Ireland is still a low-risk country although it remained on alert.

“We’re still at a low risk but,having said that, we have seen a transgression of the virus from Central Europe to France, one of our closest neighbours.”

The Agriculture Department was increasing vigilance and working closely with the UK and Northern Ireland authorities.

“It is still a wild bird disease which hasn’t cross-infected domestic flocks,” she explained.

“The vast majority of our commercial poultry is indoors but we have a sizeable amount of free range and of course people who keep poultry themselves.

“We plan for every eventuality. It would be naive to say there is no risk but at the same time there is no need to panic either. It is a balance.”

Ms Coughlan said the department was satisfied with the level of registration of flocks.

“We’re relatively happy with the number of people who have registered their birds with us. We hope we have as many as we can. We have to work on the basis that most people listen to programmes and read the newspapers and are aware,” she told RTE.

Bird Watch Ireland development officer Niall Hatch said he believed that there was no immediate concern of outbreaks.

“Outbreaks involving swans in Germany aren’t immediately worrying here in Ireland because our population is resident,” he said.

Although ducks, swans and geese are the birds most at risk, they will be migrating from Ireland within weeks, he added.