A poultry farmer based near Fota Wildlife Park in Cork has said migrating birds fly over his farm every day and his concern is that the disease will spread to his flock after several cases of bird flu were reported at the park.
It is closed to the public until further notice after samples taken from captive birds that died there tested positive for H5N1 avian influenza virus earlier this week.
It is understood the positive cases were from three dead geese and a fourth sick goose that were part of a flock of 20 at the park.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, farmer Robert Fitzsimmons said that he would support an exclusion zone to contain the disease.
He said that his farm has free-range chickens, but that at this time of year turkeys are the big business ahead of Christmas.
"It's a stressful time. I'm living in the flight path between Ballintubber and Rostellan and migratory birds fly over us daily.
"And it's just a worrying time that turkeys could pick up this in H5N1, and if they do, first of all, it would be very serious for the welfare of the birds, obviously, and second of all, financially," Mr Fitzsimmons said.
He added that he has been advised by local officials not to leave out the turkeys.
"After that I haven't heard anything and I suppose for the greater population of poultry farmers, I would like to see action being taken in a housing order and definitely if it gets any worse, we do need to be very aware and get an exclusion zone because it's our livelihoods."
He said that his turkeys are inside currently, and workers are dipping their boots going in and out to make sure they are okay.
"Basically, we're doing everything we can. We've disinfected the doors, the traffic in and out of the premises is at a minimum.
"So, we're doing our best," he added.
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Mr Fitzsimmons said his turkeys are free range and they should be out every day.
"We've been instructed by our local veterinary office to not leave out the turkeys for the last three or four days, since I think there was a concern on Fota.
"So, they're inside right now and safe."
Mr Fitzsimmons said that this year bird flu is closer to his farm than previous years.
"It's in pheasants, it's in mallard duck. It's around. It's like flu in humans.
"It spreads and it's there and we don't know how we're going to contain it or the department are probably going to have a huge job to contain it, to be fair, if it goes wrong because it's in the wild population."
He said: "If, God forbid, we did get it, it would financially destroy the business."
Mr Fitzsimmons added that he is not sure what can be done to contain the disease in wild birds.
"It's in wild birds so how do we contain wild birds, and we can talk about vaccinations and all these things, none of them are going to work because it’s in the wild and just trying to keep the wild away from us maybe as an answer.
"But I would appeal maybe to the backyard poultry people not to feed the birds outside and the person with eight or ten hens, don't feed them outside.
"Because even though the smaller producers with the backyard poultry, mightn't think they're any threat or doesn't matter to me, but it matters to the greater industry," he said.
