Government has reacted angrily to Opposition suggestions it was not taking the threat of a ?potentially disastrous? bird flu outbreak seriously enough.

Opposition Leader Grant Gibbons said that amid global fears about a possible epidemic, he had written to Premier Alex Scott calling for urgent action to cull the Island?s feral chicken population.

But a local veterinarian has said that a cull of feral chickens and pigeons was ?opportunistic fear-mongering? and has said Government should instead ban the importation of all live birds.

Dr. Gibbons, speaking in the Throne Speech response, also said immediate steps should be taken to ensure adequate stocks of medication were available if needed to fight any avian influenza outbreak.

?In the event that bird ?flu reaches Bermuda, most likely through the United States, feral chickens would be perfect carriers for the disease,? he said. ?While the current form of bird flu only infects humans after direct contact with infected poultry, most experts feel it is only a matter of time before this strain mutates into a disease that could be spread by person-to-person contact.?

He added: ?Now is the time to prepare and avert a potential disaster.?

Health experts warn an outbreak could kill up to 150 million people worldwide.

Dr. Gibbons later told the House of Assembly his warning letter was delivered on November 3 and received by Cabinet on November 7.

?To date, we have not received a response,? added the United Bermuda Party leader.

?We did not expect Government to have dealt with the issue by now but we would expect some kind of response.?

But the suggestion that Government was not preparing properly prompted an angry reply from Environment Minister Neletha Butterfield.

Stating she was unhappy the UBP had questioned Government?s handling of the situation in the Throne Speech reply, she said: ?We just got the letter. We try and respond to you as quickly as possible.?

The Progressive Labour Party MP outlined a series of measures that were being considered, including trapping and poisoning chickens.

However, the Minister said laying traps at night could not be guaranteed 100 per cent effective and poisoning would have to be closely monitored to ensure other animals and birds did not eat the deadly bait.

Ms. Butterfield, who said added problems were caused by people who feed the chickens, told the House a combination of methods would be needed to manage Bermuda?s feral bird population.

And she said a cross-department response would be taken to handle the threat posed by infectious disease.

Ms. Butterfield warned that animal activists would be up in arms about any plans to cull feral chicken numbers.

The chickens row came as a Bermuda vet said the targeting of feral chickens, as well as local pigeons, was ?opportunistic fear-mongering?, which would unnecessarily worry Island residents.

In a letter to Dr. Maureen Ware-Cieters listed a series of ways bird flu could get to the Island. These were through migrating infected birds having contact with local birds, humans travelling to high-risk Far Eastern areas and having close contact with infected birds and then coming back to Bermuda and working with birds, and the importation of live infected birds.

The vet said the Government should ban the importation of all live birds, immigration control of people who have worked in high-risk Far Eastern areas, monitoring of migrating birds landing or blown off course to Bermuda and routine sampling of lingering weak or dead migrating birds.

Last month, the Department of Health told it was taking the bird flu threat very seriously.

Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Cann said his department had been in talks with the World Health Organisation, UK Government, Pan-American Health Organisation and the Centre for Disease Control, Trinidad, in preparation.

Dr. Cann said concerns centred on the influenza in the bird population mutating or transferring to humans. As humans have never been exposed, he added, immunity levels would be low to none existent ? and the fact Bermuda was an Island would not protect it in an ?increasingly shrinking world?.

Meanwhile, Ms Butterfield told MPs that Government planned to strengthen the Dogs Act.

The Minister pointed to the recent savage attack on a postman and she said there were real fears a child could be seriously injured by a pit bull unless firm action was taken.