Bird flu prevention zone to be introduced in NI

An Avian Influenza Prevention Zone (AIPZ) is to be introduced in Northern Ireland from midnight on 17 November, the agriculture minister Edwin Poots has announced.

Mr Poots said the AIPZ places a legal requirement on all bird keepers to follow strict biosecurity measures. 

It follows "multiple detections" of the H5N1 virus in wild birds across GB.

Cases have been confirmed in captive birds and poultry in five locations.

The Department of Agriculture said there had also been "confirmed cases in wild birds across four locations in the Republic of Ireland where similar measures are also being introduced on 17 November".

An AIPZ has been in place across Great Britain since 3 November - the Defra website states the virus is "primarily a disease of birds and the risk to the general public's health is very low".

"The recent positive findings of H5N1 in wild birds in the Republic of Ireland suggest that the disease may already be present here in Northern Ireland," Mr Poots said.

"I have therefore taken the decision to declare an Avian Influenza Prevention Zone from midnight 17 November based on sound expert advice and in consultation with industry.

"This is a necessary precautionary step that requires all bird keepers to take appropriate action to review and enhance the measures to protect their birds from this highly infectious disease."

The Chief Veterinary Officer for Northern Ireland, Robert Huey, said the AIPZ was necessary "to help prevent any contact that wild birds might otherwise have with poultry or other captive birds".

"It reduces the risk of contamination from the virus to food and water provided to poultry and other captive birds therefore reducing opportunity for the disease to spread between premises," he added.

"I am urging all flock keepers, even if you keep just one bird, to take action now to improve biosecurity in order to prevent an incursion of the disease into our poultry flock.

"If avian influenza were to enter our Northern Ireland flock, it would have a significant and devastating impact on our poultry industry, international trade and the wider economy."

At the start of this year, another 30,000 birds were culled after a second outbreak of bird flu in a commercial flock in Northern Ireland.

It brought the number of birds to be destroyed following two separate outbreaks to more than 100,000.