Brussels, 29/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Union decided on Wednesday to suspend imports of pet birds such as parrots, cockatoos, finches budgerigars, hawks and falcons, from ten south-east Asian countries affected by the avian influenza virus. Imports have been suspended from Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Pakistan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.
The Standing Committee of the Food Chain and Animal Health, representing the Member States, has agreed to a proposal from EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne to exclude any possible risk for avian influenza virus occurrence in quarantine stations in the Member States, through which the birds usually pass before entering the European Union. The Commission announced that in 2003, some 100,000 pet birds, in particular parrots and cockatoos, were imported into the EU from south-east Asian countries, notably Pakistan, China and Indonesia.
The Commission has therefore paid heed to calls from certain Member States, including France and the Netherlands, urging the EU to take stricter protection measures. Hours before the discussion, Member State veterinary experts and the French authorities called on the Commission to ban imports of aviary birds and birds accompanying travellers from countries in Asia affected by avian influenza. The previous day, the Dutch Agriculture Minister, Cees Veerman, also pressed for hygiene measures in airports and an embargo on importing aviary birds from affected countries.
The Commission made an emergency decision last Friday to place an embargo on imports of chickens and poultry meat from Thailand, the only country in the region to export the meat to the EU. This measure will be re-examined when the Standing Committee of the Food Chain and Animal Health next meets on 2/3 February. By Wednesday, avian influenza had killed ten people; 8 in Vietnam and 2 in Thailand and led to the destruction of over 20 million chickens in the ten countries in Asia affected by the virus.