The threat of a pandemic moved closer last week with six EU states reporting bird flu in wild birds. Although no cases of human-to-human transmission have been uncovered in Europe, businesses have started planning for the worst.

"Some people are better prepared than others, " said Michael Conway, vice chairman of the Irish branch of the Emergency Planning Society.

"The whole issue hasn't come to the forefront as much as it should. Companies should start planning for this at board level now, if they haven't done so already."

Crisis planning is commonplace in big organisations but most plans cannot accommodate a pandemic, which could result in a big chunk of the workforce phoning in sick.

"Most people's continuity plans focus on interruptions to big functions such as the loss of key personnel, the failure of IT systems, disruption to the supply chain or the loss of facilities, " said Conway.

"But traditionally they have not planned for very significant interruptions such as 25%-50% of employees being unavailable or 25%-50% of the public being unavailable."

As the threat grows, some business leaders fear the government could be panicked into an over-reaction. "What we don't need is a reaction like we saw with foot-andmouth disease in 2001 where the country was effectively closed down for business, " said Pat Delaney of the Small Firms' Association. "The last thing we need is scare mongering or decisions that are over the top."

Bank of Ireland has a team working full time on business continuity planning and the focus has shifted in recent weeks to dealing with a flu pandemic. "They've had to put plans in place in case our staff are quarantined or placed under curfew, " said a bank spokeswoman.

"They're looking at how we could keep the money transmission system working if our branches were forced to close. We've contingency plans to double our phone banking capacity should this happen."

One executive in leading multinational employer said government reaction would be crucial. Even precautionary measures such as ordering the closure of schools and creches would have a huge impact on business because employees would be forced to stay at home to mind their children.

"You can plan for things you can control, " he said. "But a lot of things are outside our control because they're at the discretion of government or somebody else. Ultimately no plan survives contact with the enemy."