No worry about eating chicken, EU’s Kyprianou says
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Europe’s health chief urged Europeans on Monday to carry on eating poultry meat despite outbreaks of the lethal strain of bird flu, saying EU authorities had weapons available to wipe out the disease.
A string of EU countries have now confirmed the H5N1 strain of the disease in wild bird flocks, knocking consumer confidence in poultry meat - especially chicken. Italy, for example, has complained of a 70 percent slump in sales in under one week.
“We have the measures and legislation for containment and eradication of such diseases,” EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou told a news conference. “It (bird flu) is a virus that only spreads to humans with difficulty.”
“There’s no reason for European citizens not to consume poultry meat and products. Products from infected animals do not enter the food chain. The message is that it’s safe to consume poultry meat and eggs in the European Union,” he said.
Although avian influenza had been found only in wild birds within the 25-nation EU so far, it could not be excluded that the disease might hit commercial flocks in the future, he said.
EU animal health experts will meet in Brussels on Tuesday to debate more measures to keep the disease out of the bloc, as well as some requests from member states - particularly the Netherlands - for mass preventive vaccination, he said.
In the past, this has been allowed only as a last resort. EU rules also require that vaccinated birds can be distinguished from infected birds, to minimise restrictions on trade in poultry and poultry products from the vaccinated areas.
“Vaccination is allowed under the new (EU) legislation (on bird flu) in a more flexible way,” Kyprianou said. “As a preventive measure, there are both risks and benefits.”
“The criteria would be common, how such plans would be approved. But they will be examined on a case-by-case basis,” he said. “We must make sure the benefits exceed the risks. The issue of trade is one aspect that will be examined.”
One measure that the experts will discuss is a compulsory self-declaration form to be completed by all travellers entering the EU to block any illegal imports of birds or poultry meat.
“We mustn’t concentrate just on migratory birds - H5N1 could also be introduced in other ways,” Austrian Agriculture Minister Josef Proell told the news conference.
“Everything must be done to keep it just in wild bird populations,” he said. “(But) it is not the time for panic—we are doing everything humanly possible to keep avian influenza under control,” Proell said.
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