Deadly experiment

YOU carried a report on the gassing of 12,000 chickens as a Department of Agriculture experiment (Irish Examiner, May 17). We all realise a way must be found to dispose of infected birds in the event of an outbreak of avian flu here.

Carbon dioxide, the department’s method of choice for the experiment, is an “aversive” gas causing distress, panic and gasping. If it were pumped into a room full of people they would be fighting to get out.