EU extends ban on Asian poultry imports to September

EU animal health experts have extended a ban on poultry imports from eight Asian nations until the end of September due to uncertainty that deadly bird flu is under control in the region, the EU executive said on Wednesday. The EU ban had been due to expire on March 31 and had applied to 10 countries in Asia, where the virus has killed more than 30 people in the past year.
Two of those countries, Japan and South Korea, were now seen as free of the disease and so were removed from the list.
"For the other eight Asian countries...the suspension of imports of all poultry products and pet birds...has been extended until September 30, 2005 as avian influenza is either still present in these countries or they cannot be certified as disease-free," the European Commission said in a statement.
The eight countries are Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Lifting the import ban for Japan and South Korea only referred to pet birds, it said, since EU countries did not import any poultry or poultry meat from those countries.
The Commission now has to adopt the experts' decision, a move that can be expected in the next few weeks when the EU's revised measures will enter into force.
The extended ban will cover fresh meat of poultry, ratites (ostriches and other flightless birds), wild and farmed feathered game, meat preparations, meat products and raw pet food consisting of or containing meat of those species.
Imports of eggs for human consumption, live birds, unprocessed feathers and game trophies are also banned.
Thailand, the only country on the list that exports any significant amount of poultry to EU markets, has not reported any new cases of bird flu since November. Even so, the country has yet to declare itself free of the disease.
But Vietnam still has some way to go towards eradicating bird flu, which has now spread to 11 provinces. In the past six weeks, more than 108,000 poultry were either slaughtered or died of bird flu in the country.
The World Health Organisation has told Vietnam it may face new bird flu cases this month as poultry is moved around regions ahead of the mid-February Lunar New Year celebrations.