Officials from the Department of Agriculture have met to discuss the outbreak of bird flu at a poultry farm in Suffolk in England.
The Management Committee of the Department's National Disease Control Centre met this morning to assess the significance of the outbreak.
British authorities have confirmed that the flu was the Asian strain of the H5N1 virus.
The Minister for Agriculture, Mary Coughlan, said Department officials reviewed contingency arrangements and that a number of precautionary measures had been stepped up.
Officials are in contact with colleagues in the Dept of the Environment in London and the Dept of Agriculture & Rural Development in Belfast as well as the European Commission in Brussels.
Ms Coughlan said she would not hesitate to introduce further measures if appropriate to deal with any increased threat.
More than 2,500 turkeys at the Suffolk farm owned by Bernard Matthews Ltd have died, and it is probable that a cull of up to 160,000 birds will now take place.
Tight restrictions have been placed around the farm in Holton in Suffolk.
In Belfast, the Agriculture Department said Northern Ireland was well prepared to deal with an outbreak of avian flu and had robust plans in place to contain and eradicate it if it did occur.
English MEP, Neil Parish, who chairs the European Parliament's agriculture committee, said there was no need to panic.
Mr Parish, who is the Parliament's leading member on bird flu preparations, was responsible for the contingency plans being enacted by the British Department of Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) at the site.
He said: 'This outbreak has been detected early and action taken swiftly to contain it.
'The EU and Defra have put in place some very stringent procedures to prevent an outbreak from spreading.
'Of course we must all be vigilant, but there is absolutely no need for panic or hysteria.'
