By - 20th February 2006
Europe’s farm ministers meet in Brussels as the dangerous H5N1 avian flu virus sweeps into western Europe and after France confirmed a case this weekend.
France is home to the EU’s largest poultry industry and Paris has reacted by bringing flocks indoors and plans to vaccinate livestock that can not be enclosed.
A 3km quarantine zone has been created in the area near Lyon where a dead wild duck was found to have the H5N1 virus this Saturday.
Europe’s agriculture ministers will discuss possible aid for farmers should H5N1 cross over into domestic flocks on Monday.
This happened in Turkey and Asia where mass culls of poultry were triggered.
EU ministers will also hear calls for all free-range flocks to be enclosed or placed indoors in a bid to prevent spread of avian flu to domestic birds.
French response
Paris has called for calm as fear spreads. The French authorities have so far earmarked €5m for the poultry industry.
On Sunday the country’s agriculture minister Dominique Bussereau said the government was ready to take “supplementary financial action” although he did not specify a figure.
Paris has also set out a vaccination scheme for 900,000 chickens and geese.
But as the government attempts to reassure consumers that French chicken has never been safer, worried farmers fear the crisis could cause the meat and egg sectors to collapse.
Following last week’s discovery of the dangerous H5N1 strain, chicken sales fell by up to 30 per cent in some areas.
“If things turn out badly we could see sales plummet by 50 per cent in the next two weeks,” Louis Orenga of the meat information centre told French newspaper La Liberation.
“Everything will now depend on efforts to inform, protect and reassure.”
And the situation in Italy and Greece has only added to French fears. There, consumers taste for chicken has fallen by 70 per cent since H5N1 struck.
Greek and Italian demands
Greece and Italy are expected to repeat calls for financial assistance help to poultry farmers at Monday’s meeting.
Italy is ready to "risk legal procedures against the EU," Italian newspapers report.
“If we don't get the authorisation, we will ask the government to go ahead even if it means risking EU sanctions," Italian agriculture minister Gianni Alemanno told reporters.
But at the last agriculture meeting, EU agriculture commissioner Fischer-Boel said the EU executive does not have any specific instruments other than export refunds to support the market.
German spread
Meanwhile in Germany, the virus has now spread to the mainland with cases found in Eastern and Northern Vorpommern.
The German army is helping slaughter all poultry on the island of Ruegen where 59 birds have already tested positive for H5N1 and where "hundreds" more have been found dead.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, visited the island on Sunday to throw weight behind the escalating crisis.
"The situation is serious," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters.
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