UK poultry scare "contained" EU says
continue to flow to EU countries while the UK battles with a
disease that can wipe out entire flocks.
A spokesperson for the European Commission said the UK seems to have contained Newcastle's disease, which was discovered last week in a lot of 9,000 pheasants in Surrey.
"We are not considering any measures at the moment," said Philip Tod, the Commission's spokesperson for health and consumers protection.
The UK's government's department for the environment, food and rural affairs (Defra) on Friday imposed the ban last Friday on all exportsoutside the EU of live birds, hatching eggs, meat and eggs.
The disease is as damaging to the poultry industry as foot-and-mouth is to livestock. It is almost always fatal to birds, and can cause conjunctivitis in adults and children in contact withinfected animals, according to the International Society for Infectious Diseases.
Exports outside the EU of live birds, poultry parts and hatching eggs are worth about £114m (€165m) a year and mainly consist of the export of cheaper cuts such as chicken, turkey and duck wingsand feet to the Far East. The figure does not include exports of eggs for eating, which Defra was unable to provide.
The EU market for the UK's poultry and poultry products is worth about £300m (€435m) a year.
"We are working hard with the poultry industry and the farming industry to get the disease under control and track where the disease came from," a Defra spokesperson toldFoodProductionDaily.com.
He said Defra is in the process of culling all of the flock of 9000 pheasants in which the disease was found on 12 July. Government has imposed a 10 kilometre exclusion zone around the infectedfarm to halt spread of the disease.
The affected chicks were imported from France two weeks ago. France has stopped further exports of pheasants to the UK, while it investigates the problem. Defra is investigating whetherthe chicks were infected before arrival in the UK or within the country.
Most breeding and egg-laying birds are routinely vaccinated against the disease while most chickens reared for meat are not. Defra noted that the infected farm is not close to any significantpoultry production units.
"Although Newcastle disease is infectious to other birds, the potential threat to a major part of the UK egg and poultry industry is minimal as large-scale producers routinely vaccinatetheir birds against the disease and any vulnerable birds could be vaccinated within a week," Defra stated in a press release.
Newcastle disease was first detected in the UK in the 1930s. There have been seven outbreaks since then, the last in 1997. The disease has also been detected in California in 2003 and Denmark in2002.
Newcastle disease is a highly infectious disease of birds caused by a para-myxo virus. It affects fowls, turkeys, geese, ducks, pheasants, guinea fowl and other wild and captive birds, includingostriches, emus and rhea.
