Bird flu: No new cases recorded in NI for three weeks

By Sunday there will only be one bird flu control zone remaining in NI

No cases of bird flu have been detected in Northern Ireland for at least three weeks, officials have said.

They praised the poultry industry for the steps taken to improve biosecurity and said "excellent progress" had been made.

But they added that the risk "has not gone away".

By Sunday there will be just one bird flu control zone in place in Northern Ireland and one overlap from a zone in the Republic of Ireland.

Officials previously said this was the largest ever outbreak of the disease in the UK and Ireland.

Since the start of December a total of five cases have been detected at four commercial premises and one backyard flock in Northern Ireland.

The outbreak began in October 2021 when cases were first detected in England.

Since then Great Britain has had 74 confirmed cases, with more than 400 detected in wild birds.

There have been six cases in the Republic of Ireland at five premises in County Monaghan and one in County Cavan.

'Picture improving'

The department in Northern Ireland mirrors 10km (6.2 mile) control zones in the Republic of Ireland when they cover a border area.

Jim Blee, deputy director for animal health and welfare, told Stormont's Agriculture Committee the picture was improving.

"It's important to note that excellent progress has been made", he said.

Temporary control zones were introduced across Northern Ireland to try to contain the spread of the disease

"By Sunday only one 10km zone will remain in Northern Ireland, around IP5 [infected premises] in Ballinderry, along with a portion of an overlapping zone in IP6 in the Republic of Ireland.

"Full details of the scope and measures required within these zones and maps are available on the Daera website, and include the requirement of all moves of poultry, eggs or meat within, into or out of the zones are required to be licensed", he added.

Flock owners are entitled to compensation when the highly pathogenic avian influenza strain is confirmed in their birds.

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"We have been working with all the affected flock keepers very closely and we have agreed the compensation levels for three of the sites" Mr Blee said.

"The total for that at the minute is sitting about £160,000 for those three sites.

"We had some ongoing discussions with two of the sites and we'll work through that closely with those site owners."

Culling has been completed at the five sites in Northern Ireland - Aughnacloy, Broughshane, Armagh, Coagh and Ballinderry.

Cleansing and disinfection has also been carried out, but it will be some time before farms can be restocked and a process of monitoring and surveillance will be put in place when birds are brought back into to the affected sites.