There has been a further tightening of regulations covering the sale of poultry meat as the avian flu, which has claimed 18 lives in Asia, continues to ravage poultry stocks there.
The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, said at the weekend that all poultry meat sold loose (without packaging) must carry a notice with all the information currently required on packaged poultry meat.
This should include the class of the poultry, the price per weight, whether it is fresh or frozen, and the registered number of the slaughterhouse or cutting plant. This regulation will supplement the order made last week requiring that the country of origin be indicated on poultry meat from outside the EU.
Last week the European Commission extended for six months its temporary ban on the import of poultry meat from Thailand. However, it also decided to reduce the level of sampling it would carry out on poultry imported into the EU from Brazil, a move which has been criticised here. Meanwhile, a strain of the bird flu has been identified in the US on a poultry farm in Delaware. There, 12,000 birds were slaughtered at the weekend.