Brussels, 16/02/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 16 February, the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health reached agreement on measures to be taken in the event of a case of avian flu being discovered in commercial poultry. For the moment, the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the avian flu virus has been confined to wild birds in six EU Member States (Greece, Italy, Austria, Germany, Slovenia and Hungary).
Were commercial poultry in the EU to be infected with the virus, the measures to be taken are those provided for in the current directive and the new directive to be implemented by 2007 at the latest: 3 km protection zones around the outbreak and a 10 km surveillance zone. The birds on the infected farm and those of neighbouring farms, if an outbreak is suspected, are to be culled. Within the surveillance zone, all poultry and captive birds are to be kept indoors, live bird markets prohibited and transport of poultry forbidden, except for birds being taken to the abattoir. EU experts are divided on timing of the authorisation of preventive inoculation of poultry against avian flu. On 16 February, the European Commission received the French plan to inoculate all farmed ducks and geese in three départements in the west of the country, Landes, Loire-Atlantique and Vendée.
Currently six Member States have been affected by avian flu in wild birds: Greece, where 2 new outbreaks were discovered on 16 February, Italy, Austria, Germany, Slovenia and Hungary, where samples from birds affected with the H5 virus are being analysed to see if H5N1 is present. These countries have to apply the precautionary measures (3 km protection zone around where the infected bird was discovered and inside which all poultry have to be kept indoors and cannot be transported, along with a 10 km surveillance zone). The EU Veterinary Committee has also approved the decision allowing the imposition of these rules in any Member State where a case of avian flu is discovered and this so that the Commission is not required to adopt a decision for each individual country where an avian flu case is discovered since identical measures are to be taken in every country.
The H5N1 strain is present in 2007 accession countries too: in Romania (31 cases of H5N1 and 2 new H5 cases) and in Bulgaria, where the H5 avian flu virus, which is not necessarily highly pathogenic, was identified for the fourth time on 12 February, after the discovery in the Vidin region in January of a dead swan carrying the H5N1 strain. Because of avian flu, since 13 October 2005, the EU has imposed an embargo on imports from Romania of poultry, ratites, farmed game birds and live wild game birds, and hatching eggs of these species.
Since the start of 2005, Member States have suspended the import of poultry, game, feathers and eggs from those parts of Bulgaria affected by Newcastle disease. Given the gradual disappearance of this disease in Bulgaria, and the discovery from the start of 2006 of cases of avian flu in the country, the EU has reviewed its banning measures. On 16 February, its veterinary experts decided to ban Community imports, from Bulgaria as a whole, of live poultry, ratites, farmed game birds and live wild game birds, and hatching eggs of these species. For other products (chicken meat, untreated feathers), the EU will impose a limited embargo in the following regions of Bulgaria: Vidin, Montana, Vratsa, Pleven, Veliko Tarnovo, Russe, Razgrad, Silistra, Dobrich and Varna.
As a precautionary measure against avian flu, several Member States have decided that poultry should be kept indoors. Poultry, which hitherto have been raised in the open air (a minority of European poultry farming), will have to be held day and night in a closed building. The aim is to prevent any contact with possible sources of contamination, especially from migrating birds flying over or stopping on the territory and whose droppings could carry the infection. The EU countries which have taken this decision are: Germany, the Netherlands and Luxemburg (measures to come into effect from 20 February), France, Denmark, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Estonia. Poland and Latvia have strengthened confinement measures already in place and other countries, like Belgium, require poultry owners to feed their birds indoors in sensitive areas. Beyond the EU, Norway and Switzerland have taken measures to confine poultry indoors.