EU on alert after bird-flu outbreak[fr][de] 

"Any generalised ban on exports of poultry from a country like the UK is unjustified and disproportionate," said Commission spokesman Michael Mann on 6 February 2007. 

Mann added: "Any restrictions should only apply to the region affected. There is not a generalised problem. There is one farm, and that has been dealt with." 

Earlier that day it was reported that Russia, Japan, South Africa, Hong Kong and Korea had imposed import bans on poultry and poultry products from the UK, in a move that will cost the UK poultry industry millions, according to the reports. 

Mann denounced press articles stating that Ireland had also imposed an import ban on poultry from the neighbouring UK. "It's simply not true," the Commission spokesman said, adding that it is impossible for a single EU country to block imports from another member state. Mann said that the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health, which met on 6 February in Brussels, had taken notice of and endorsed the measures applied by the UK. This concerns protection, surveillance and buffer zones set up following the outbreak. 

At the farm in Suffolk (South England) where 2,500 turkeys have died of bird flu, the culling of the remaining 159,000 birds was completed on 6 February 2007. In sealed lorries, the carcasses were brought to Staffordshire (West Midlands) to be cremated. 

One veterinarian who had taken part in the culling was brought to a hospital for observation after he experienced what was described as "a mild respiratory illness". The UK Health Protection Agency said it was "highly unlikely" that the veterinarian, who had been wearing full protective gear, had been exposed to the potentially deadly H5N1 virus, adding that there was "no need to panic". 

In the meantime, experts are still trying to find out how the H5N1 virus reached Suffolk. Mann said that, according to experts in the food security committee, it was "unlikely" that the virus came from Hungary, where the last outbreak within the EU was recorded in January. In January and February, no bird migrations are considered to take place. One possibility experts are examining is transmission via seagulls, the excrement of which may have been carried into the farm on the soles of boots. 

Two recent fatalities due to avian influenza in Egypt and in Nigeria indicate that, outside EU boundaries, bird flu is already much more virulent in certain places. At least 173 people worldwide have died from the virus since it first affected humans in 2003.