A PIGGERY in Kilworth, north Cork, has been identified as the location of the first case of the pandemic H1N1 swine flu in pigs in the Republic of Ireland.
A report from the Department of Agriculture to the World Animal Health Organisation (OIE) in Paris identified the site as a breeding unit containing 650 sows and 2,400 piglets and weaners.
The OIE said the pigs were being monitored as high-risk following confirmation of the virus in a worker on September 22nd. The worker tended the pigs from September 15th-18th while sick.
Clinical signs started in the pigs on September 25th, with sows off feed and their breathing laboured. Movements of pigs off farm had been stopped voluntarily since September 18th in accordance with a code of practice previously agreed between the Department of Agriculture and stakeholders.
The report said 40 cases of swine flu had been confirmed in the piggery and a total of 3,050 animals were susceptible to the disease in two of the three sow houses on the premises.
The Department of Agriculture, which has been refusing to divulge the location of the farm to the media, stressed there is no risk to human health from the outbreak, which is the second on the island of Ireland.
The case follows an outbreak earlier this month affecting about 4,500 animals at a piggery in Greenhill, Northern Ireland, which has now been controlled.
Pigs which get the flu are not slaughtered and will recover, experts said yesterday, adding that the flu cannot be passed on to humans unless they have contact with living pigs.
The department and producers have been stressing there is no danger to humans consuming pork product because the virus cannot be passed on in this way.
The outbreak has come as unwelcome news to the pig sector, which has only just recovered from a major dioxin crisis in December last. All Irish pork products were withdrawn for a short time because of the contamination of pig and cattle feed by oil.
This incident led to a huge recall of products from the international markets and while Irish consumers supported the industry very strongly, Ireland is still attempting to recover market share lost at this time.
Exports were worth €1 million per day in 2008 and 40 per cent of the product produced was consumed in Ireland.
Tim Cullinan, chairman of the Irish Farmers’ Association’s pig producers’ committee, said it was very important to deliver a message to the public that there was no danger to public health from eating pork products.
He said there were 450 pig producers in the Republic producing 3.5 million pigs a year and a total of 7,000 people were employed, directly or indirectly, in the industry.