Other strains of bird flu have spread to humans and prompted authorities to slaughter animals.
The Australian government has suspended live cattle exports to Indonesia until safeguards are adopted to end the brutal slaughter of animals.
The government remains adamant that the surest way to eradicate the disease is the mass slaughter of infected animals within 24 hours and livestock on neighbouring land within 48 hours.
He denied his ministry had been sidelined by Prime Minister Tony Blair taking charge of the crisis and the deployment of the Army to speed up the slaughter of culled animals.
He also says he is against long distance transport of live animals for slaughter.
The long-distance transportation of animals for slaughter is "a madness", according to veterinary surgeon David Wilkins, Director of the Eurogroup for Animal Welfare.
Some are sending animals for slaughter, pushing prices down.
Ministers and their officials should have shown more scepticism, as they should when they offered only 50% compensation for cattle with BSE, a standing temptation to unscrupulous farmers to send their animals for slaughter in order to obtain the market price for them.
Under Jewish and Islamic law, animals for slaughter must be healthy and uninjured at the time of death, which rules out driving a bolt into the brain - though some Muslim authorities accept forms of stunning that can be guaranteed not to kill the animal.
Costs of supplies and services are said to be spiralling and restrictions on movement of animals for sale and slaughter are leading to severe cash flow problems.
There is an argument for transporting animals the shortest possible distance to slaughter, to minimise stress and the risk of injury.
Meanwhile, Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson has called on Mrs Rodgers to immediately resolve the dispute over the burial of animals to be culled in an extended precuationary slaughter in south Armagh.
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