EU Talks on Bird Flu Vaccinations to Continue Wednesday
Date: 22-Feb-06
Country: BELGIUM
Author: Jeremy Smith
The two countries are the EU's two largest poultry producers and want approval from the European Commission and their fellow EU member states to carry out preventive and targeted vaccination of poultry, particularly chickens, geese and ducks.
"They (the experts) haven't been able to conclude the discussion and that will continue tomorrow," an official at the European Commission told Reuters.
For the Netherlands, which faced an outbreak of a different type of bird flu in 2003 - causing the slaughter of 30 million birds, a third of its flock - vaccination could be useful since the country is small and densely populated, experts say.
But the EU is split on the merits of preventive vaccination against animal diseases, particularly since it can damage export trade if a country's meat products are shunned, or blocked, by its usual importers. Ireland, for one, has voiced this concern.
Some consumers tend to avoid meat from vaccinated animals because of health fears.
EU rules require that vaccinated birds can be distinguished from infected birds and that specific surveillance and control measures are in place - to minimise restrictions on trade in poultry and poultry products from the vaccinated areas. Until now, vaccination has been allowed only in limited circumstances and the Brussels-based Commission, which monitors national programmes to keep dangerous strains of bird flu out of Europe, has shied away from generalised preventive vaccination.
SPECIFIC CONDITIONS
The Commission will set specific conditions for approving the French and Dutch plans and present them to the experts on Wednesday. If approved, they would be the EU's first preventive vaccination plans against the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu.
"They (experts) are going through the proposals with a fine toothcomb, analysing the various types of vaccinations, how many vaccinations and the effects on the food chain in Europe," said one member of the committee of national experts.
The Netherlands wants EU approval to vaccinate hobby poultry and free-range chickens, most at risk of contact with wild birds. Vaccination would be voluntary, as an alternative to the requirement that these birds be kept indoors.
France, the EU's top poultry producer, wants to vaccinate geese and ducks in three different departments that are considered high-risk bird flu areas. Last weekend, France said it had found H5N1 in a wild duck in the east of the country.
Vaccination would start immediately and continue until April 1, during which time some 900,000 birds would be immunised.
Both countries outlined the monitoring and control measures that their national authorities would follow for vaccinated birds, the Commission said in a statement.
These included the use of unvaccinated "control" birds, or sentinel birds, that would remain within a vaccinated flock, and regular testing of both vaccinated and sentinel birds, it said.
Commission officials have said there would be no problem for the EU to help pay for emergency short-term vaccination. But this would not apply for preventive vaccination.
(additional reporting by Darren Ennis)
