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More cases of bird flu have been confirmed, as there are fears that there could be a shortage of turkeys this Christmas . Robert Fitzsimmons is a turkey farmer near Midleton in County Cork who has a flock of 3,000 birds. He explained that this could be very serious, especially if it spreads beyond turkeys . Orders have been issued due to the outbreaks of avian influenza in Fota Wildlife Park in Cork, with reports in Meath and Carlow too. A compulsory housing order for all poultry and captive birds will come into effect on Monday, 10 November, to try and protect birds from avian influenza. Robert told RTE’s Morning Ireland: “Farmers were doing everything they possibly could not to get them contaminated, contaminate humans or contaminate their flock.” He has already been keeping his turkey indoors, he shared: “I have been [keeping them indoors] since before the announcement in Fota. My local vet rang me to say that there were birds taken to the labs in Fota. We sort of knew three of four days before that there was trouble in the area.” “They have a month to go and they’re only three-quarters grown,” he said. “It’s in the wild and there’s nothing going to stop it. There’s dead birds in the vicinity of where we live. I’m in the flight path of the migrating birds. There’s nothing we can do except change our clothing, not let anybody in or out of the turkeys and disinfect our boots going in and out.” If bird flu comes to spread, it will hugely impact farmers around the country. “It will be a devastation to the business. There are farmers that have gotten it already. I know one of the cases in Kells personally. We do business with him a long, long time,” Robert explained. “It’s tough on these people to lose livestock.” He acknowledged that he might have to start earlier this year, but hopes they can wait until early December. “Each case in different parts of the country could be different. Here, as soon as we get them to a weight that we desire, we’re going to try and go. “It’s not that simple to change, because of the age of the birds. We’re set up to do this with years and years. It’s difficult just to change because something comes and throws us a spanner in the works. “We normally process our birds on the second week of December. We’ve been doing that and we know the breeds for years. We would like to get that time to get them fat, get the flavour and all these things.” “If this gets worse, it could be very, very serious,” he explained as it could be very serious for the food chain if it spreads beyond turkeys.
