Wegens vogelgriep: handelsverbod op pluimvee uitgebreid tot Rusland (en)

EU health ministers decided on Thursday (20 October) to extend a ban on poultry imports to Russia, and impose new measures that would keep the Asian bird flu threat under control.

The only areas to which the ban on Russia will not apply are Kaliningrad and some regions on the border of Finland.

The ministers and the European Commission agreed on the first day of the two-day health council in England, that EU member states must make national evaluations and identify what actions are needed to prevent contact between wild birds and domestic poultry.

Member states must also inform the Commission Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCFCAH) - and each other - about the measures taken.

Special permission will be needed to keep birds at markets and exhibitions, shows and cultural events, and member states have to present special programmes for keeping and vaccinating birds in zoos.

Chicken and chicken fodder must also be kept beyond reach of wild birds.

Ministers call for calm

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and several experts in Europe have said that the bird virus is likely to mutate into a form transmittable to humans, and create an influenza pandemic in Europe.

But EU health ministers said at Thursday's council meeting that the pandemic fears have been exaggerated.

Alarms about possible bird flu in Greece seemed to be false, the EU Laboratory for Avian Influenza in Weybridge, UK reported on Thursday, saying that tests showed the Greek birds had not died from the H5 bird flu virus.

The commission said that although the first results had proved negative, it did not exclude the presence of the virus in the country.

Health ministers in England also discussed pandemic preparedness in the different member states.

The commission has suggested that each member state should stockpile enough virus treatment, like Tamiflu, to treat a fourth of the population.

"None of the countries reach those numbers today", Swedish health minister Morgan Johansson told wires after the meeting.