December 21, 2005

 

EU approves tighter bird flu measures

 

 

EU governments Tuesday approved measures to tighten their defenses against bird flu by allowing increased use of vaccinations and imposing restrictions on farmers during outbreaks of less dangerous forms of the disease.

 

Preventing the movement of poultry from farms with milder strains of bird flu and slaughtering infected birds could help prevent the development of the more deadly forms, the EU said.

 

"This directive will help strengthen our defenses against outbreaks of bird flu in the EU, to swiftly manage those that may occur and to minimise their negative impact," explained EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou.

 

The measures approved by EU farm ministers will also lessen trade restrictions on birds that have been vaccinated against milder forms of bird flu to encourage greater use of vaccination. However, the EU said vaccination use would remain strictly monitored and the rules will require that vaccinated birds be differentiated from infected poultry.

 

"Measures laid down will be managed so that restrictions on the trade in poultry and poultry products from the vaccinated areas can be minimised," the EU said in a statement. "Restrictions will only be applied to the specific regions using vaccination, or even compartments within those regions, rather than to the whole Member State."

 

Under the previous EU rules, protective measures were only introduced against highly pathogenic bird flu viruses which cause major disease outbreaks in poultry and can sometimes infect humans.

 

The new rules will be introduced against milder strains because of evidence they can mutate into the more deadly forms, the EU said.

 

"Member states must ensure that no poultry are moved to or from the infected holding until the virus is eliminated, and all birds from the affected flock must be slaughtered normally or, if necessary "stamped-out" to prevent farm-to-farm spread of virus," the EU said.

 

Under normal procedures, the new rules should become law in all 25 EU members by July, but the European Commission said it may introduce an interim ruling in January to make the measures immediately binding.