Several EU agriculture ministers supported the implementation of a vaccination strategy for poultry against avian influenza on Thursday 7 April.
But several countries (Denmark, Spain, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Belgium, the Netherlands, Hungary...) drew attention to the potentially negative effects of such a strategy on poultry trade, with the risk that third countries will ban imports of EU poultry from countries or regions where vaccination has taken place.
This vaccination campaign would complement existing biosecurity measures, not replace them, stressed French Minister Julien Denormandie, who is chairing the Agriculture Council. He added that vaccination would reduce the number of healthy birds that need to be culled to limit the spread of bird flu.
“We should not underestimate the collateral effects of such a vaccination”, which is not yet perfected, said the Spanish minister, Luis Planas. The effects on international trade need to be studied, according to his Danish counterpart. There are still technical and scientific problems, Luxembourg highlighted.
“As soon as the vaccines are available, we will support EU Member States in rolling out vaccination strategies”, replied Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski on behalf of the European Commission.
“We will encourage non-European countries to accept vaccination as a complementary tool to limit the spread of the virus, in accordance with the rules of the World Organisation for Animal Health”, he said. The Commission highlighted the high number of avian influenza cases in Europe.
The Agriculture Council will return to this issue in June. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)