February 21, 2006

France allays bird flu fear among consumers

French Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau on Sunday Feb 19 appealed to French consumers to eat more poultry despite the discovery of a wild duck near Lyon contaminated with the bird flu virus.

Responding to criticism that EUR5 million promised by the government to ease the impact of the virus on poultry farmers is too little--especially compared with the EUR40 million offered by Italy to its own farmers--Bussereau said, "The best thing we can do is to tell people to keep eating poultry, even encourage them to eat more. There's no risk to their health because monitoring of foodstuffs has never been so good as it is now."

Speaking on Europe 1 radio, the minister said poultry consumption had fallen by up to 20 percent at some periods since October when concerns about the spread of the virus from Asia took hold.

Bussereau said that with tens of thousands of wild birds due to fly to Europe from the south in coming weeks, the government's main task is to prevent the virus spreading from wild birds to those being farmed.

Farmers have been told to keep birds inside and the government will start vaccinations Wednesday on farms in the country's most exposed regions, Bussereau said. He said there is currently no need to start culling birds.