EU veterinary experts discuss poultry vaccination plans
EU veterinary experts in Brussels today continued to discuss French and Dutch plans to vaccinate poultry in the face of an advancing bird flu strain.
The EU executive commission said it had presented a draft proposal to the experts from the 25 EU member states for the plans to be approved, with a number of specific conditions.
France and the Netherlands, the EU’s largest poultry producers, want to launch a programme of “preventive” vaccination of certain birds as a precautionary measure as the lethal H5N1 strain spreads around Europe. Animal health experts were deadlocked yesterday over the plans, the commission said.
The French plan foresees the vaccination of ducks and geese in three risk areas – including Landes, a region famous for producing and exporting fois gras - starting on April 1. The French this week bought 30 million doses of a bird flu vaccine for poultry and want 900,000 birds vaccinated.
The Netherlands – which fought an outbreak of a different type of bird flu three years ago – wants to give poultry farmers across the country the choice of either locking up their birds or medicating free-range laying hens and privately hel poultry.
But other EU members, including Britain and Germany, questioned the effectiveness of vaccinating poultry. The vaccine may provide some protection against standard flu – not H5N1 in particular.
| Related Stories: |
|
