Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Martin Heydon, told Dáil Éireann that his department is liaising with Northern Irish counterparts as part of its ongoing efforts to monitor the evolving avian influenza situation there.
When asked by deputy John Lahart to respond to the recent outbreaks in Northern Ireland during a Dáil debate on February 20, Heydon responded that DAFM “takes the threat of avian influenza seriously”.
He explained that “strict biosecurity” measures were the most effective means of protecting the national flock from bird flu and that his department were repeatedly carrying out avian influenza surveillance testing in wild birds and poultry to monitor the disease incidence in Ireland.
“This is why the Government introduced the Avian Influenza…