An outbreak of coronavirus in pig and poultry factories could leave them acutely vulnerable to a backlog, the sector has warned.

With fewer processing plants in Ireland, there is less room to move production to another site in the event a plant would have to be shut down if a member of staff contracted the virus.

IFA poultry chair Andrew Boylan said it was an issue of concern and pointed out that there were only three major poultry processing sites in the Republic of Ireland.

The country’s biggest poultry processor, Manor Farm, told the Irish Farmers Journal that it had put measures in place to ensure production levels remained stable.

IFA pig chair Tom Hogan said the IFA was in contact with all the factories and the Department of Agriculture.

“The factories reassured us they’ve been in touch with the health authorities and the unions,” Hogan said.

“Over the last few weeks, farmers might have been looking at moving a few extra pigs so they could buy a few days if they needed them.”

He said biosecurity on pig farms was already very high but added that an outbreak of the virus among employees could be devastating for an individual farmer. He urged all farmers to follow HSE advice.

Read more

GVM marts move to suspend all except calf sales

Coronavirus: feed mills ‘close to full tilt’ but no reason to panic