Bird flu threat - Steps needed to reassure public

The confidence expressed by Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan that her department is fully prepared for bird flu may be intended to be reassuring, but it is hardly sufficient.

Even as the Government-appointed expert group met in Dublin yesterday, tests were being conducted for the virus on a number of swans found dead around the country in Meath and Dublin.

Similar tests were being conducted in the North on other dead swans, while another found on the east coast of Scotland proved positive on Thursday for the H5N1 strain of avian flu, which affects wild birds and poultry.