European Commission plans emergency measures to combat bird flu in Poland

European Commission plans emergency measures to combat bird flu in Poland

The European Commission plans to adopt emergency measures next week to stop the spread of bird flu in two regions of Poland, a spokesperson said on Friday.

There have been 73 confirmed outbreaks of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in Poland in the last two months, with 53 of those in the Masovian and Greater Poland regions.

“Given the large scale of the outbreaks (in those two regions)… it is necessary to adopt additional emergency measures to be applied in those high risk areas, strengthening the prevention and control measures,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

“It is foreseen that the measures will be adopted by the Commission next week. These measures also seek, in taking these prevention steps, to protect the Polish poultry industry more widely.”

The spokesperson did not elaborate on what the emergency measures would involve, but said they had been discussed with national and regional authorities, which had agreed to them.

In an emailed response to Reuters questions, the Polish agriculture ministry said the extraordinary measures would “primarily concern the introduction of a ban on new farms located in the area subject to restrictions until the HPAI epidemic is brought under control”.

“The Polish… authorities are conducting an intensive dialogue with the EC in order to limit the territorial restrictions and obtain derogations for the movement of other products originating from poultry and the activities of poultry hatcheries,” the ministry added.

Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported on Thursday that the European Commission wanted to ban the export of poultry from Poland due to bird flu.

However, Polish Agriculture Minister Czeslaw Siekierski was quoted by state news agency PAP on Friday as saying it was “too early” to talk about such a possibility.