UK poultry farmers demand government issue housing order over rising Avian flu cases
A group of 30 poultry farmers with at least 2,700 farms in Ireland who made their case to Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed were given an audience with the Minister this week.
The group of 30 farmers, whose combined farms have a turnover of €80 million, believe at least 3,000 people may be suffering from the highly contagious avian influenza virus, after cases were rapidly identified in the Midlands and in Mayo.
One of the group’s senior members, Tom Morris said:
“The Minister promised to look into the situation and he did, yet he offered no real response, simply that there are 3,000 people in Mayo who are being seriously affected by the bird flu virus.”
“It’s a serious situation, it’s got to be handled with the utmost seriousness.”
“There are a lot of farmers, like us, who have been affected and we are very concerned about what’s happening and we are taking it very seriously.”
“I see every day the losses and the stress it causes. The government should have done more to act immediately.”
“The Avian influenza has been killing stock. It has killed our birds…that is a real concern.”
“Our farmer’s livelihood is being threatened, they have lost their livelihood and we have lost our farmers.”
“We are very concerned to see what’s happening in Mayo. It’s very worrying.”
“We have seen it in Ireland before, with a bird flu that was spreading across the country, and we would like to see something similar done again.”
“We need to call on the European Commission to start looking in our direction as well, because it would not be surprising to see another case.”
“We are very concerned about our avian flu situation in Ireland, and we would very much like a proper investigation, and