Vigilant approach needed to bird flu - Coughlan

The Government and the public need to take a vigilant approach on the issue of bird flu, Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan warned today.

"One couldn't ascertain if this is going to happen or not," she said. "All we can do is be aware, be vigilant, look at early detection and look at all the necessary measures that can be put in place in order to make sure that this does not happen."

Speaking on RTÉ radio this morning ahead of a European veterinary experts meeting in Brussels today, the Minister said the Government was in contact with the EU and as a precautionary measure has banned a number of the importation of live poultry and other products from Asian countries.

The Department of Agriculture has also a published series of advertisements warning people of the risk of travelling to infected countries, including Turkey.

She said her Department was working closely with the poultry industry as well as Bird Watch Ireland, the Game Councils and National Parks and Wildlife.

Ms Coughlan also said a civil service committee leading up into ministerial level had been set up between the Department of Health and her own department.

Last night A Department of Health spokesman said 400,000 units of the newly developed H5N1 vaccine had been ordered but would not be available until well into next year.

In Northern Ireland Carmel Hanna of the SDLP called for a co-ordinated response across Ireland.

The SDLP Assembly member said: "The only comparable experience is Foot and Mouth, where swift action to close ports and treat the island of Ireland as a unit in combating the threat proved highly effective. Are the British direct rule ministers aware that this is an option that they should take?"

"The flu will not stop at, or respect, a line on a map," she added.

Mike Ryan of the World Health Organization warned "if a pandemic virus emerges we will probably not be able to stop it".

Mr Ryan warned that one off the main problems was not creating the vaccine but being able to produce it on a necessary scale.

"Producing this vaccine is a very complicated industrial process and requires very sophisticated systems and we frankly do not have enough capacity on the planet right now to produce this vaccine in enough quantities to serve all of the world's population," he warned.