The chair of the IFA’s poultry committee, Nigel Sweetnam has said that bird flu is worrying for everyone.
He said that avian influenza has arrived a month earlier this year, as wild birds usually arrive in October, before the disease comes in in November.
Speaking on the Joe Finnegan Show this morning, he said that it is a disease of wild birds, and the danger is direct contact with domestic foul.
According to the poultry chair, 90% of infection occurs from direct contact with wild birds.
Mr. Sweetnam was speaking after the Minister for Agriculture, Martin Heydon, confirmed this week that samples taken from captive birds that died at Fota Wildlife Park have tested positive for the virus.
He said that you cannot overstate the importance of the poultry industry in the Cavan-Monaghan area.
However, he called on the public, and people with "backyard flocks’ to ‘own up to the challenge".
He said: "You can't overstate how important the poultry industry is to Cavan-Monaghan.
"People do need to own up to this, and face up to the challenge.
"I think what's happened up to now, is that commercial farmers have been well aware of the risk. Backyard flocks have kind of shrugged and said, 'this isn't an issue for me', but it is becoming more of an issue.
"People need to wake up to that, and be honest in reporting it. There's also a danger that these backyard flocks could become hubs of infection," Mr. Sweetnam added.
