EU Bans Thai Chicken Imports

BRUSSELS - Jan 23/04 - SNS -- The European Commission has banned poultry meat and product imports from Thailand in response to outbreaks of avian influenza (AI) outbreaks in that country.

EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne said the suspension takes immediate effect, but they do not apply to meat and meat products from poultry slaughtered before January 1. Avian influenza is a highly contagious poultry disease that can cause severe economic damage to the poultry industry and can be transmitted to humans.

The EU does not import live poultry and hatching eggs from Thailand and although the risk of importing the virus in meat or meat products is probably very low the Commission wants to make sure that any possible transmission is avoided.

"Given the seriousness of potential risk for Europe we have to ban Thai poultry imports immediately," Byrne said. "We cannot take any risks with public health or animal health. Over the past few days I had extensive contacts with the Thai Government to ascertain the exact state of affairs and pressed them to make full information available so that necessary action could be taken.

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