February 24, 2006

 

EU to hold urgent talks on bird flu

 

 

European Union nations will hold urgent talks Friday (Feb 24) to assess what more they can do to stop the spread of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu strain, which has already been discovered in 10 European countries.

 

Health ministers from the 25 EU countries will also seek to allay fears of a possible human flu pandemic stemming from the disease, which currently poses little threat to human health and is largely of concern to the poultry industry.

 

Austrian Health Minister Maria Rauch-Kallat said Thursday that governments' readiness to deal with a possible bird flu pandemic in Europe was spotty and that steps must be taken to bring them to appropriate standards.

 

"There are countries that are well-prepared...and there are countries that are less well-prepared," she said in an interview ahead of Friday's EU health ministers meeting that she will preside over.

 

She said the meeting's aim was to focus efforts on assuring the public there is no imminent threat to human health provided people avoid contact with sick animals and to step up coordination among the 25 EU governments to fight bird flu.

 

The Vienna talks will also be attended by experts from the WHO, the UN food and agriculture agency and the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health. They will debrief governments on what course the EU should pursue to prevent the disease from reaching its farmed poultry, officials said.

 

The H5N1 virus has devastated poultry stocks and killed at least 92 people, mostly in Asia, since 2003, according to WHO.

 

"As the spring migration approaches, I would urge member states to remain on high alert for any signs of bird flu," said EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou.

 

EU governments have already agreed to a slew of measures including increased surveillance of wetlands, farm inspections and adopting speedy containment measures where outbreaks have already occurred.

 

However, they remain divided over whether they should pursue a general vaccination of farm animals, or whether to pool a stock of flu vaccines for humans.

 

France and the Netherlands, the EU's largest poultry producers, were given the green light from EU veterinary experts on Wednesday to go ahead with limited preventative vaccinations of birds.

 

Slovenia--which reported its first case of H5N1 earlier this month--also is considering vaccinating poultry.

 

Officials said, however, it was unlikely the EU would move to a general vaccination of all farmed poultry saying it would be impossible to fund shots for the 5 billion birds produced each year in the EU

 

The Dutch and French plans could involve some 5 million birds alone, officials said.