France in bird flu alert, EU to review measures

The French government has decided to extend culls to the entire territory for all poultry raised in the open air. EU farm ministers will reassess measures at a meeting on Monday (20 February).

EU farm ministers will review measures taken against bird flu on Monday 20 February after the first case of the deadly H5N1 strain was confirmed in a wild duck in the Ain region near Lyon at the weekend. 

French authorities have imposed a quarantine of 3km around the area and a vaccination campaign has been launched for commercial ducks and geese raised in risk areas.

The Netherlands’ farm ministry on Friday (17 February) said that it would seek permission from the European Commission to launch a vaccination campaign for all poultry raised in the open air. The Hague intends to extend vaccinations to commercial poultry as well, the Dutch press agency ANP reported.

Commonly agreed precautionary safety measures are already being applied in affected EU countries. On 15 February, the Commission’s standing committee on the food chain and animal health gave its approval to member states’ national surveillance plans for wild birds and poultry and decided to suspend all imports of untreated feathers (EURACTIV, 16 Feb. 2006).

Since January, bird flu has been advancing westwards from Turkey to Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Germany, Austria and lastly Hungary with cases confirmed in wild swans on 16 February. Cases in Romania’s Danube delta were first identified in October last year.

Read more with Euractiv

Commission asks member states to stay alert on bird flu

Hungary has become the fifth EU country in five days, to confirm the presence of H5N1. The Commission has asked the member states to constantly re-evaluate their national avian influenza risk zones and the timing for precautionary protection measures.