Free-range flocks are back in the fields after the Department of Agriculture on Tuesday lifted the compulsory housing of all farmed birds imposed on 23 December. The measure kept them insulated from wild birds, in which the H5N8 virus was found on 11 occasions between December and February.

No Irish flock tested positive for this strain of avian influenza, which is lethal to birds. Millions of birds had to be culled elsewhere in Europe to halt the spread of the disease.

“We just opened the doors and let them out,” Bertram Salter said from his farm in Fenagh, Co Carlow. “We were informed very well by the Department. They rang me on Tuesday.”

No effect

Salter said the four-month housing period had “no effect at all” on his business, even though his chickens lost their free-range status on St Patrick’s day and had to be re-labelled with stickers indicating they were temporarily housed.

IFA poultry chair Nigel Renaghan said the recent management of the disease was “an example of how things should be done”.

Discussions between the IFA, the Department, processors and retailers before the restrictions came into force led to agreement that there would be no price cut for farmers who lost their free-range label, and compensation would be paid in case infected flocks had to be culled.