EU: The European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Mr David Byrne, announced yesterday that the European Union was banning the import of eggs and poultry from the US after an outbreak of avian influenza in Texas.
The strain of influenza is not the same as the one in the Far East, which killed 22 people in Thailand and Vietnam and thousands of chickens across eight countries. Nevertheless, Mr Byrne said it was his job "to make sure that safety comes first".
"Even though the virus in question probably poses a public health risk inferior to the Asian virus, I am taking immediate action and suspending the import of live birds, poultry meat and eggs from all of the US," he said at a meeting of EU farm ministers in Brussels.
Because of concern about chlorine treatment of poultry carcasses, the EU does not import poultry meat from the US. But it has been importing significant quantities of eggs and chicks. The US exported to the EU almost nine million eggs in 2003, with a value of €20 million. Of these, half were for consumption and half for hatching. This made up half of the EU's egg imports.
In addition the US exported almost half a million day-old chicks for rearing, worth another €2.5 million in 2003. Of these, the bulk were turkey chicks. The imports from the US constituted more than half of the EU's imports of day-old chicks.
The US Department of Agriculture described the strain of influenza as "highly pathogenic", but said there was no evidence yet that it could be harmful to humans. It said the Texas outbreak was the first of its kind in the US in 20 years, although a milder form of avian influenza had been found earlier this month in Delaware and neighbouring states.
Mr Byrne said the ban would be reviewed at a meeting of veterinary experts from EU states next Tuesday and might be limited later to a region of the US. That would depend on what further information was provided by US authorities.
The commissioner is already scheduled to visit the US between March 17th and 19th. He will use the occasion to discuss the outbreak with US authorities.
The Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Joe Walsh, who chaired yesterday's meeting of farm ministers, urged travellers to the US and Asia not to bring any poultry products home with them.