Europe partially permits Bulgarian poultry exports

BULGARIA - Bulgaria will export about 20 million eggs and nearly 800 tons of goose liver after the ban on the export of birds and bird products from Bulgaria is lifted. This was said by Bulgaria’s Agriculture and Forestry Minister Nihat Kabil on February 21 in Plovdiv.

The European Commission’s Veterinary Committee is allowing Bulgaria to export birds, bird products and eggs originating from industrial complexes after it had placed a ban on all bird and poultry products on February 13. This implies an acknowledgement of the high sanitary standards in such complexes, which make infection practically impossible. Only the ban on the export of live birds and products from waterfowl remains valid after the active interference of experts from the Ministry of Agriculture, Kabil said.

The H5N1 virus was found in four wild migratory swans in Bulgaria, as confirmed by a European Union Community Reference Laboratory in the UK last week. The samples were taken from Vidin in north-west Bulgaria, Kraimorie in the Bourgas region, and Dourankulak and the Tsonevo dam in the Varna region. No domestic poultry has so far tested positive of the H5N1 strain.

Experts from the National Veterinary Medical Service (NVMS) said that the migration of wild birds back to the North has already begun and this would reduce the danger of a bird flu outbreak in Bulgaria. Twenty days after the birds fly away, the danger of bird flu will not be gone, but will definitely decrease, NVMS Executive Director Zheko Baichev said on February 22.

Source: The Sofia Echo
calendar icon 27 February 2006
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