September 6, 2006

EU supports plan to extend partial ban on Romanian poultry imports

European Union governments Tuesday (Sep 5) backed new plans designed to stave off new outbreaks of the deadly bird-flu virus, extending a partial import ban on Romanian poultry products and allowing Germany to conduct experimental bird flu vaccinations on some non-commercial poultry.

Animal experts representing the EU's 25 member states in Brussels for a two-day meeting agreed to continue until the end of 2006 a ban on all poultry products from Romania's Danube Delta, south and east of the Carpathian Mountains.

The measures will be reviewed at the end of the year. Other regions previously included in the ban may resume exporting their poultry goods, the European Commission said in a statement.

German authorities now have permission to carry out a two-year vaccination project on three farms in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The vaccinations will be carried out for research purposes only, as part of a major field study to determine the effects and results of vaccinating against bird flu. None of the poultry used in the research, nor their meat and eggs, will be put on the market, the Commission said.