A special meeting of the Government's inter-departmental working group on emergency planning is to be held tomorrow to consider the threat of bird flu to Ireland.
The meeting, called last week by Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea, will be presented with the most recent preparations made by the Departments of Agriculture and Health to deal with any outbreak of the H5N1 virus in Ireland.
The inter-departmental group is made up of some 20 officials representing Government departments and public authorities with roles in emergency plans, including the Health Service Executive, and is chaired by the office of emergency planning.
A spokesman for the Department of Defence said the special meeting was called to bring the working group and all Government departments "up to speed" on Ireland's response to the escalation of avian flu in Europe.
"We will be told how the plans have been ratcheted up by both departments. This information will ensure co-ordination across all Government departments."
Mr O'Dea, who is chairman of the Government Task Force on Emergency Planning, will be briefed on tomorrow's discussions before the next meeting of the taskforce on March 9th.
Meanwhile, 70 calls were received by the Department of Agriculture's bird flu hotline from members of the public yesterday.
A spokesman for the department said all of the calls were investigated and if necessary on-call vets collected the birds and brought them to the department's regional laboratories for examination.
"It takes one day for the initial screening tests to determine if the birds may have the H5N1-type bird flu. If there is a chance that they do, a sample is sent on to the EU central laboratory in Weybridge, England. So far no samples have been sent to Weybridge."
Some 11 wild birds that visit Ireland are considered at higher risk of carrying bird flu. These include eight kinds of duck such as mallard and teal; the northern lapwing; the blackheaded gull and the common gull.
