Depopulation services for bird flocks on poultry premises in the Republic of Ireland

Tender description

The National Disease Control Centre (NDCC) is a division of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) responsible for maintaining contingency preparedness for, and control of exotic trans-boundary animal diseases. Under this remit, the NDCC may require the depopulation of poultry premises in the event of an outbreak of a poultry disease listed in the Schedule to Statutory Instrument No. 130 of 2016, Notification and Control of Diseases affecting terrestrial Animals (No. 2) Regulations 2016. Diseases of particular importance include Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza and Newcastle disease because of the potential impact an outbreak of either disease is likely to have on animal health, public health or trade. Avian Influenza remains a constant threat to the Irish poultry industry because of the risk from migratory wild birds. Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza of the H5N1 subtype has been very prevalent across the EU in 2021/22 and the most recent outbreak of Avian Influenza in poultry in Ireland occurred in November 2022. Cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza have also been detected in wild birds in Ireland in recent years. Newcastle disease is also a threat to Irish poultry due to potential circulation in wild birds and pigeons and sporadic outbreaks occurring in other EU Member States. The EU legislation governing both of these diseases requires stringent measures to be put in place in the event of a confirmed outbreak, including humane culling of all poultry on the affected premises in order to prevent onward spread of the disease. The relevant legislation is listed in the Additional Information section below. It is of extremely important to authorities in Ireland to deal with outbreaks of high impact poultry diseases such as Avian Influenza and Newcastle Disease in a timely manner in order to mitigate against the spread of the disease. DAFM maintains a register of poultry premises in this jurisdiction on its Animal Health Computer System. It is estimated that the Republic of Ireland has a total poultry population of approximately 31.5 million birds according to this register. Based on the 2019 poultry survey there are over 7,000 active poultry holdings registered with DAFM. Of these over 1300 keep greater than 1,000 birds, approximately 700 report capacity for over 10,000 birds and of these over 250 holdings have capacity for greater than 40,000 birds. Description and requirements: DAFM require an end-to-end service for poultry depopulation using whole house gassing method using carbon dioxide, or other inert gas listed in Annex 1 of Council Regulation (EC) 1099/2009.