European Union veterinary experts are meeting on Friday to discuss moves to halt the spread of bird flu as the continent awaits test results from a second suspected outbreak.
British scientists on Thursday said the virus found in Turkish poultry was the H5N1 strain that health experts fear could mutate into a human disease and kill millions of people worldwide. The virus has killed 60 people — mostly poultry farm workers — in Asia since it first emerged in Hong Kong in 1997.
The results of similar tests on dead birds from Romania are expected on Friday.
The vets from 25 EU countries are considering European commission proposals to limit the risk of contact between poultry from contaminated areas and wild birds.
Brussels has already banned imports of live birds from Turkey and Romania. Now commissioners are recommending moves that might mean keeping free-range poultry indoors.
Experts on migratory routes, wild birds and hunting have joined the emergency meeting of the EU’s standing committee on the food chain and animal health.
Once new preventive measures are in place, EU governments will have to keep Brussels informed about how they are being applied, to enable coordinated control and close monitoring of the potential spread of the disease in the EU.
”Each member state will define which areas are at risk and apply the necessary measures to separate wild birds from poultry,” a commission spokesperson said.
The French Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, on Friday cautioned against panic over bird flu. He said the EU was ”totally mobilised”.
On Thursday night, British health officials called for elderly people and children in high-risk groups to get the winter flu jab, effectively urging the inoculation of more than 10-million British pensioners and approximately one million children.
The fear is that flu sufferers who come into contact with avian flu could act as a catalyst for the virus to mutate. A British official said: ”We recommend seasonal vaccination for all those over 65 or all those who suffer from ailments that put them at higher risk from flu such as asthma, diabetes or serious heart or lung conditions.”
The EU health commissioner, Markos Kyprianou, has urged countries to stockpile antiviral drugs to prepare for a possible pandemic.
Bird flu is a potential disaster for Europe’s farmers but there is no evidence the virus has mutated into a form that passes easily between people.
Scientists at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge, Surrey, who carried out the tests on the Turkish poultry are expected to confirm today whether samples from birds in Romania also contain H5N1. – Guardian Unlimited Â