As the H5N8 strain of avian influenza spreads across Europe, Irish farmers are being encouraged to take the precaution of housing all free -range birds.

“Even people who have chickens running around farmyards need to house them indoors,” IFA poultry chair Nigel Reneghan said. “Where a food supply is available, such as grain stores, wild fowl can land, and if there are domestic fowl there then it’s a real issue. Please be cautious.”

Six cases of the disease have been confirmed on farms in the south-west of France, raising the alert level to high risk for the entire country. Similarly DEFRA, the UK ministry for agriculture, has told poultry farmers to keep all birds housed indoors for 30 days as a precautionary measure.

“As soon as any disease spreads to France it becomes a risk,” Reneghan said. “We have good bio-security measures here, but packers I have spoken to are all looking for a very pro-active approach on this.”

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