European Union foreign ministers have declared the spread of bird flu from Asia into Europe a global threat requiring broad international co-operation to contain.
A Greek health official wearing a protective suit leaves a small farm
They also called on the EU Executive Commission to accelerate steps to draft stronger rules against the virus, which in recent days has been discovered in Greece, Romania and Turkey, leading to bans on poultry from those countries.
The latest country to have a suspected case is Macedonia. Today authorities there said that one dead chicken found among hundreds in a village north of the Greek border had raised suspicions and samples were being sent to Britain for tests for possible bird flu.
However, European Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianoum said the presence of bird flu in southeastern Europe did not increase the risk of a human influenza pandemic.
Mr Kyprianou made his comments after briefing EU foreign ministers at an emergency meeting as Greece banned the export of live birds and poultry meat from the area where the EU 's first confirmed case of bird flu was detected yesterday.
The deadly H5N1 bird flu strain has swept poultry populations in large swaths of Asia since 2003, jumping to humans and killing at least 61 people - more than 40 of them in Vietnam - and resulting in the deaths of tens of millions of birds.
European Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianoum
Its spread westward by migrating wild fowl has intensified fears the virus may mutate into one that can be easily transmitted among humans - a development experts fear could provoke a global epidemic that puts millions of lives at risk.
The foreign ministers were to issue a statement saying they recognise bird flu poses a serious, global health threat if it shifts from birds to human beings and one "that requires a coordinated international reaction."
The EU stepped up biosecurity measures and installed early detection systems along the migratory paths of birds to prevent contamination of domestic flocks.
But there are concerns that European nations lack stockpiles of vaccines and anti-virals to cope with a major outbreak.
"The fact we have avian flu in Europe does not affect the possibility of a human influenza pandemic," Mr Kyprianou told a news conference.
The EU foreign ministers discussed the international response to the westward spread of bird flu and assessed EU nations' readiness to deal with a possible pandemic.
"We have already taken all steps necessary. Once it has touched European soil, then we have raised all the measures we should take," Mr Kyprianou told reporters as he arrived for the meeting.
"I don't think we have to enter into panic," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, chairing the meeting, said the main purpose was to reassure citizens that every precaution was being taken to prevent the avian influenza outbreak from mutating into a pandemic that could kill humans
The World Health Organization recommends governments keep enough anti-viral drugs and regular human flu vaccines to inoculate at least 25 percent of their populations.
European officials say the 25 nations in the EU, as well as Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, have only 10 million doses for an area with 500 million people. That's just 1 per cent of the population.
Stockpiling vaccines is difficult, however, as flu viruses can mutate quickly.
There is no human vaccine for the current strain of bird flu, but scientists believe the Tamiflu drug may help humans fend off the virus.