The Department of Agriculture last night rejected criticisms from Fine Gael that it was falling down in the fight to keep out avian flu. Seán Mac Connell, Agriculture Correspondent, reports.
Deputy Denis Naughten, FG spokesman on agriculture, listed four areas of concern which he said were vital in the fight to keep the disease out of the country.
The lo-call number to report suspect cases is not widely known to either the emergency services or the general public
The public has not been informed as to what signs they should look out for and in which types of birds
One-fifth of domestic (non-commercial) poultry flocks, according to Department of Agriculture estimates, have still not been registered
The Government has failed to ensure that Irish chicken and poultry products were properly and transparently labelled, both in supermarkets and in the catering trade, so that consumers can have confidence in poultry products.
In reply, a department spokesman said it was taking out advertisements to alert the public to the lo-call number. "We have also written to the Garda authorities and the Health Service Executive advising them that calls about ill or dead birds should be relayed to the local veterinary offices in each county or to the lo-call number."
On the issue of registration of non-commercial flocks, the spokesman said it was impossible to calculate just how many people with backyard birds had not registered. "We are very satisfied with the response from this sector which would not constitute a critical mass in the event of the disease arriving here. We have already registered 8,000 flocks and these include all the commercial birds and the organically reared fowl and people with a few birds are contacting us all the time looking to register."
BirdWatch Ireland is to issue a list of birds which are most susceptible to the disease and information on the signs to look out for were available on the department's website.
"The question of labelling of chicken has been addressed by the Minister at EU level . . . Food Safety Authority of Ireland advice is that poultry is a safe product if properly cooked."
Tests carried out at the department's laboratories on a dead bird found in Co Donegal, have proved negative.
Bird flu watch: round-up
France
France has found a suspected outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu at a turkey farm in the east of the country, the farm ministry reported yesterday. If confirmed, it would be the second case of the virus spreading to domestic farm birds in the EU and could deal a heavy blow to France's already battered €6 billion-a-year poultry industry. The ministry said a high mortality rate among turkeys was discovered at the farm, which has more than 11,000 birds and is situated in the department of Ain, where two cases of the disease have already been confirmed in wild ducks.
Germany
Germany registered its first case of a farm bird dying from the disease when authorities said a duck on a farm on the Baltic Sea island of Rügen had initially tested positive for the H5N1 strain. It proved negative in a second test but this has to be confirmed by the EU Laboratories in Weybridge, Britain. The duck was from a farm with 106 other birds, which had not been scheduled for precautionary culling. Some 103 wild birds have tested positive for bird flu since the disease first reached Germany on February 14th, mostly on the island of Rügen. Most were migrating swans.
Greece
In Greece, another seven wild birds were confirmed positive for H5N1, increasing the number of confirmed cases for Greece to 16, the agriculture ministry there reported yesterday. It said confirmation came from the EU reference laboratory in Weybridge. All the infected birds were migratory swans found in northern Greece.
EU advice
European states were warned to prepare for more cases of the disease as the spring migration season approaches and new species, possibly already infected, arrive from Africa. EU health chief consumer protection commissioner Markos Kyprianou said that, with suspected outbreaks of the virulent H5N1 strain cropping up almost daily, the EU's executive arm was ready to combat a heightened risk to domestic poultry.