Farmers in the poultry sector are being urged to remain vigilant following a recent outbreak of confirmed avian influenza (bird flu) cases in Ireland.
While cases have mainly been confirmed in seabird colonies around Ireland’s coastline, the risk remains for poultry farms to be affected by bird flu.
Nigel Sweetnam, Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) poultry chair said: “We’re warning farmers to be vigilant.
“There’s so many threats coming at us in the poultry sector so we’re constantly on high alert, between the bird flu and salmonella.
“The whole outlook for poultry in the last 15 months is that biosecurity is key.”
With wild birds currently afflicted with bird flu, there is a risk of a bird with the disease coming into contact with poultry farms.
“Free-range birds are the real risk here. 90% of transmission of avian flu is through direct contact,” Sweetnam said.
Bird flu outbreak
With bird flu outbreaks affecting many seabirds last year, the current outbreak in Ireland has so far been seen predominantly in seabird colonies, with devastating results.
Niall Hatch, head of communications and development at Birdwatch Ireland said: “Staff have been dealing with alarming and unprecedented outbreaks of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian influenza, or bird flu, at some of Ireland’s most important seabird colonies.
“Over the past few weeks, the carcasses of hundreds of dead seabirds, both adults and chicks, have been recovered for disposal, in an effort to try to prevent further spread of this highly contagious viral disease.
“Since July 1, a small number of adult common terns have been found dead or dying on Rockabill Island. Unfortunately, the carcasses sent to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine for analysis have tested positive for bird flu.
“The main outbreak has been at Lady’s Island Lake, Co. Wexford where the common tern has been badly hit,” Hatch told Agriland.
“To date, we have our wardens down there who’ve been collecting carcasses the last number of weeks and have been monitoring the outbreak.”
Experience from seabird colonies elsewhere in Europe last summer has shown that carcass removal is a key action to minimising the spread of bird flu.
Cases of bird flu have not been limited to Ireland’s coastline; further inland there have been confirmed cases, most recently seen in the flamingo population at Dublin Zoo.
A statement from Dublin Zoo said: “Dublin Zoo has confirmed one case of avian influenza within its flamingo population.
“All birds in the care of Dublin Zoo have been vaccinated against bird flu and received subsequent boosters. However, infection can occasionally still occur as this isolated case shows.
“The rest of the flamingo population appears healthy and show no symptoms. As per protocol and as a precautionary measure, the flamingo population has been isolated and moved to a controlled area of the habitat for testing.”