A compulsory housing order for all poultry and captive birds has come into effect country wide in a bid to reduce the threat of the highly pathogenic bird flu.<\/p>\n
From Monday, poultry and captive birds must be housed or confined in such a manner that they do not have access to other poultry, captive birds, or wild birds.<\/p>\n
The measure, which applies to commercial flock owners as well as those with small \u201cbackyard flocks\u201d, including free-range egg producers and pet bird keepers, aims to reduce the opportunity for contact with potentially infected wild birds.<\/p>\n
Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon <\/a>said reducing this opportunity for contact is \u201ccrucial as this is one of the main ways in which the virus can spread\u201d.<\/p>\n It comes as outbreaks of the disease were confirmed at two separate commercial turkey flocks in Co Meath and Co Carlow last week.<\/p>\n Restriction zones have been established around the affected holdings, comprising a 3km protection zone and a 10km surveillance zone.<\/p>\n The outbreaks prompted the Irish Farmers\u2019 Association (IFA) to call for \u201claser-like focus on biosecurity\u201d<\/a> from poultry owners in order to protect their birds.<\/p>\n Fota Wildlife Park in Cork, meanwhile, is set to remain closed until the end of the month after an outbreak was detected on October 13th.<\/p>\n The Department of Agriculture has been co-operating with its equivalent in Northern Ireland, where similar restrictions are now in place following several outbreaks.<\/p>\n