Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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193. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine in the context of the recent and annually recurring very stark warnings in respect of Avian Flu issued by his Department, the Department of Health, the Health Surveillance Protection Centre, the Health and Safety Executive, and indeed by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage/National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), and Local Authorities, warnings which urge the general public to avoid contact with seabirds and their faecal waste, and in the context of the explicit and thorough biosecurity measures promulgated by his Department, does he share the Deputy's concerns about the rapid proliferation in recent years of high density urban breeding gull colonies, gulls being a species heavily implicated in the dispersal of the H5N1 virus, (ref 'Seabirds Count' a census of breeding seabirds in Britain and Ireland (2015-2021)), ISBN 9788416728602, and if he does share the Deputy's concern, does he agree with the Deputy that e.g. children/people in schools, hospitals and residential areas, especially though not exclusively immune-compromised people, where dense gull breeding colonies exist and now live all year round, are at significantly higher risks of infection compared to swathes of the general population who may have no or very limited exposure to breeding gull colonies and their detritus over the breeding season April through September each year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40107/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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Wild birds such as gulls are the responsibility of the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

My Department monitors the avian influenza disease situation in wild birds to inform the risks posed to poultry and captive birds.

My Department's advice is that people should not pick up or touch sick, dead or dying wild birds and should keep their pets away from them. Dogs should be kept on a lead in areas where sick or dead wild birds are present. Poultry keepers, whether they have large poultry farms or small backyard flocks, are advised to practice strict biosecurity to reduce the risk of their flocks becoming infected.

Where members of the public find sick, dead or dying birds, they can report it to my Department using the Avian Check Wild Bird Application or by calling the Avian Influenza hotline on: 01 607 2512 (during office hours). My Department does not collect all dead birds reported in this way, but rather carries out surveillance testing on a selection of such birds.

The HSE Health Protection Surveillance Centre and the European Centre for Disease Control advise that the risk to the general public from the main strain of avian influenza that is circulating, H5N1, is very low.

Further information on avian influenza, including how to access Avian Check, can be found on the Government website at: www.gov.ie/birdflu.