{"id":123861,"date":"2025-11-05T21:55:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T21:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/123861\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T21:55:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T21:55:07","slug":"meath-commercial-turkey-flock-tests-positive-for-bird-flu-in-second-case-this-week-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/123861\/","title":{"rendered":"Meath commercial turkey flock tests positive for bird flu in second case this week \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another outbreak of the highly pathogenic bird flu was confirmed on Wednesday at a commercial turkey flock in Co Meath, the Department of Agriculture has said.<\/p>\n

The development followed the imposition of local emergency restriction measures around a turkey flock in Co Carlow on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon<\/a> said the second such outbreak of the disease at a commercial turkey facility this week \u201cunderlines the ongoing presence of avian influenza in wild birds across the country.”<\/p>\n

Restriction zones have been established around the affected holdings, comprising a 3km protection zone and a 10km surveillance zone.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Wednesday, the Minister announced a compulsory housing order for all poultry and captive birds as part of measures to minimise the risk of bird flu spreading.<\/p>\n

Mr Heydon said the action, which takes force from next Monday, will \u201creduce the threat to our industry and to our poultry farmers\u2019 livelihoods\u201d. Poultry and captive birds must, from November 10th, be housed or confined, he said.<\/p>\n

The Department of Agriculture\u2019s chief veterinary officer said there is no concern about stocks of turkey for Christmas following the Co Carlow outbreak<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dr June Fanning said the strain of bird flu circulating is \u201clow risk\u201d to humans. <\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, the advice still is that if people come across sick or dead wild birds, or if they\u2019ve poultry themselves that are sick, not to touch or interact with the birds because there is that human health risk, however low,\u201d she told RT\u00c9\u2019s Morning Ireland on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately for birds, it\u2019s a highly pathogenic strain. It\u2019s very contagious, so it spreads very easily between birds and it also causes severe signs, including death, in the birds.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0A wildlife park is shut and local farmers are nervous \u2013 how should avian flu be tackled?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Speaking before the housing order was announced at midday on Wednesday, Dr Fanning said housing poultry as an isolated measure \u201cis not protective, so we\u2019re working very closely with the industry and it\u2019s an evolving situation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHousing alone won\u2019t protect the birds because obviously the virus can be walked in on dirty footwear into a house,\u201d she added. \u201cHowever, it is an additional measure, so we are looking at all mitigants at the moment, so we wouldn\u2019t rule anything out at this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Fanning said the current outbreak is \u201cquite small\u201d and there is no concern about stocks of turkeys for Christmas. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s contagious and it\u2019s here,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had experience previously \u2013 2022 was the last time we had commercial outbreaks. Industry have been really good at working with us in relation to biosecurity. It is highly contagious, so it is a threat, but we have measures in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Heydon said the avian influenza H5N1 disease \u201cposes no food-safety risk to consumers of well-cooked poultry products, including eggs\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis outbreak is a reminder to us all of the importance of robust biosecurity,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is why I announced a biosecurity order that took effect last Saturday. Strict biosecurity is the best defence we have against the threat of avian influenza.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Fota Wildlife Park cases confirm bird flu remains a big threatOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

If needed, free-range and organic poultry flocks can be housed to protect them against avian influenza. Specific EU regulations lay down detailed rules regarding marketing standards for eggs and poultry meat. <\/p>\n

These regulations set down minimum requirements that must be met in order to use the term \u201cfree range\u201d, including rules around access to the range, according to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. <\/p>\n

Free-range eggs may continue to be marketed as \u201cfree range\u201d for the duration of a compulsory restriction imposed to protect public and animal health. <\/p>\n

In the case of meat from free-range poultry, marketing standards regulations permit it to be marketed as \u201cfree range\u201d if the birds are restricted from open-air runs for less than 12 weeks. <\/p>\n

EU regulations allow for organic poultry and eggs to be marketed as \u201corganic\u201d while under temporary indoor confinement, imposed to protect public and animal health, if steps are taken to facilitate their natural behaviours and all other provisions for organic production are met in full. <\/p>\n

The strain of bird flu has been confirmed in a number of wild birds across the country, with more than 40 cases so far this year, the department has said.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Fota Wildlife Park in Cork, which has been closed following detection of the virus there, said it would remain closed until the end of the month. It faces financial losses running into hundreds of thousands of euro.<\/p>\n

Aileen Tennant, Fota director, confirmed the park would probably remain closed for at least three weeks to deal with the outbreak.<\/p>\n

Ms Tennant said Fota had consulted with the Department of Agriculture and embarked upon a series of targeted mitigation measures to prevent spread.<\/p>\n

She confirmed that 12 cases of avian flu had been confirmed among the park\u2019s bird population since the outbreak was first detected on October 13th. It was found among the park\u2019s greylag geese.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another outbreak of the highly pathogenic bird flu was confirmed on Wednesday at a commercial turkey flock in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9484,22828,13355,73381,42,22479,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-123861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-christmas","9":"tag-department-of-agriculture-food-and-the-marine","10":"tag-food-production","11":"tag-fota-island-resort","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-martin-heydon","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-top-news","16":"tag-top-stories","17":"tag-topnews","18":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}