Authorities in Greece today confirmed the country's first case of bird flu, on a turkey farm on the Aegean Sea island of Oinouses, near the Turkish coast.
Agriculture Minister Evengelos Basiakos said the H5 virus had been detected in one of nine turkeys tested on Oinouses.
Tests were being conducted for the possible presence of the deadly H5N1 virus - which world health experts fear could mutate to a human form and cause a flu pandemic.
The European Union said tonight it is preparing to ban the movement of live birds and poultry meat from the island region following the suspected discovery of bird flu there. In a statement, the European Commission said Greece had already agreed to restrict the dispatch of poultry from the Chios island region as a precaution starting tonight. The EU executive office said it expected experts at Greece's national reference laboratory in Thessaloniki to have results on samples taken from suspected turkeys on tomorrow. "The Commission is preparing a safeguard decision to ban the movement of live poultry and poultry products from the infected area," its statement said.
"The EU decision will be adopted as soon as the national reference laboratory has confirmed the serological results, expected tomorrow."
Meanwhile, Romania said today it had recorded no new cases of bird flu after a mass cull of poultry today.
British tests showed on Saturday the H5N1 strain of the disease, which has killed more than 60 people and millions of birds in Asia since 2003, had reached mainland Europe, identifying it in three ducks found dead in a Romanian village.
Experts fear the virus could mutate and spread among humans, creating a pandemic that might kill millions of people.
Romania said it had finished culling poultry in the Danube delta on the Black Sea, a destination for migratory wild birds heading towards warmer climes in North Africa, and had found no new cases after the virus was found in Ceamurlia de Jos.
The bird flu outbreak was limited to Ceamurlia de Jos and Maliuc, 40 kilometres north. All 18,000 domestic birds in Ceamurlia were killed and culling of Maliuc's less than 3,000 poultry was finished earlier on today, a spokesman said.
But its jittery neighbours and European countries on migratory routes stepped up testing of birds to prevent the disease's spread.
Greece is waiting for results on eight dead birds found in the northeastern Evros river delta over the weekend as officials fear the spread of the disease is likely because it also sits on one of the busiest migratory routes from Europe to Africa.
In Brussels, the European Union's executive Commission urged all countries where dead birds were found to carry out tests.
Turkey tested nine people for possible bird flu last week, but there was no immediate sign of illness was detected.