The emergency plan to prevent the spread of the bird flu virus across Europe, which was agreed by European Union veterinary experts and adopted by member states last night, designates wetlands and farms along the migratory flypaths of wild birds as high-risk.
In particular, poultry in high-risk areas may have to be kept indoors, the European Commission said in a statement. Less extreme measures, however, such as netting off poultry enclosures from wild birds and feeding poultry indoors, are expected to be sufficient in most areas.
EU experts fear migratory birds caused the outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus in Turkey early this week. They also believe that an outbreak of avian flu virus in Romania is the H5N1 strain, which has killed 60 people in Asia since 2003.
The commission will not be able to confirm the precise strain of the Romanian virus until today. The tests were due to be completed at a British laboratory yesterday but a customs problem on the Romania border delayed the transportation of the samples.
A spokesman for Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said the commission had no criticism of customs procedures in Romania.
Romania's president Traian Basescu has pledged his country would do everything possible to combat an outbreak. "You can trust in our capacity to keep the situation under control," Mr Basescu said.
Referring to the delay in transporting the samples, Mr Kyprianou said: "These are sensitive packages which have to be treated in accordance with rules and regulations governing consignments which could be dangerous."
The implementation and financing of the emergency plan proposed by the commission will be overseen by individual member states. They must also assess which areas are high risk and submit their findings to the commission by November 5th.
The early detection system agreed last night sets out specific criteria, such as a drop in egg production or increased mortality rates, to alert farmers to a possible infection.
Farmers must report such events immediately to the authorities. The plan concludes that activities which bring people into contact with wild birds, such as hunting and ornithology, need not be restricted yet.
Minister for Agriculture and Food Mary Coughlan said she would be studying the new bio-security rules and would move immediately to implement such measures as were appropriate in an Irish context.
She said the early warning system, already introduced by her department, would meet the requirement in the decision to introduce "early detection systems".
The department has made arrangements to bring the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the National Association of Regional Game Councils and Birdwatch Ireland up to date as to the operation of the early warning system at a meeting on Monday to discuss the measures.
The Labour Party had called on the Government to establish a national bio-security unit to protect against avian flu and other threats to human health from animal diseases.
Dr Mary Upton, Labour's spokeswoman on agriculture, said: "It is now very clear that along with other western European countries, Ireland is facing real danger from the rapid spread westwards of avian flu with the consequent risk of an avian flu pandemic that could have potentially catastrophic consequences for the human population."
Dr Upton acknowledged the steps taken so far but said additional measures were required, including more effective checks at points of entry of those coming from areas where outbreaks of avian flu have been confirmed.
The World Health Organisation has said the spread of the virus to poultry in new areas on the fringes of Europe has increased the chances of human cases, but "false alarms" are also likely. It has called for tighter surveillance of both flocks and humans to quickly detect any further outbreaks.
However, in a statement, the WHO has said all evidence indicated that the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus still does not spread easily from birds to infect humans.