EU health officials last night demanded tough new measures to prevent the spread of deadly bird flu into Europe, including limits on public access to wetlands in high-risk areas and requirements that some poultry be kept inside.
Veterinary experts agreed recommendations from the European commission that will require poultry farmers to be vaccinated against the human flu virus and to remain vigilant for tell-tale signs such as a fall in egg production or increased bird mortality rates.
Countries will have to pinpoint "high risk" areas and take steps to keep wild birds away from domestic fowl, including keeping poultry indoors in some areas. They must report back to Brussels on measures taken within three weeks. The experts also called on governments to stockpile antiviral drugs and redouble their efforts to prepare for the possible spread of bird flu.
An international team will be sent to Turkey - where 8,000 chickens, geese, turkeys and pigeons have been culled since the discovery of the virus there - and Bulgaria. Tests on apparently infected birds from Romania are being conducted at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge, Surrey. Results are expected today.
There also was a setback for the preventative campaign, which is largely based on the effectiveness of the antiviral drug Tamiflu. Its manufacturer, Roche, is to double production by the end of the year and the British government has ordered 14.6m doses, enough to treat 25% of the population in the event of a pandemic. But yesterday the scientific journal Nature unveiled research suggesting that Tamiflu may not always be sufficient to combat the infection. After noting partial resistance to the drug in a Vietnamese patient, experts suggest complementary treatments may be needed.
As international organisations scrambled to respond to rising anxiety, fresh concerns emerged in Turkey, where nine people are under medical observation after 40 pigeons from their neighbourhood died in mysterious circumstances. The nine, who include a family of poultry farmers, will remain in hospital for at least a week, but Dr Vasil Haluk at the Turkish Medical Association in Ankara called it "a precautionary step", adding: "No case of bird flu in a human has been reported."
The nervousness in Europe was heightened by the scale of the crisis unfolding in south-east Asia, where Shigeru Omi, the World Health Organisation's director in the western Pacific, said £150m would be needed to fight a virus that was "unpredictable and unstable". "All attempts to bring it under control in south-east Asia have failed," he said. Bird flu is endemic in poultry in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Cambodia, and 60 people have died in these countries since it emerged in late 2003. The current mortality rate in humans is 50%, according to WHO officials.
British health officials claimed the UK would be ready to deal with a bird flu pandemic. David Salisbury, head of immunisation for the Department of Health said: "We are getting 800,000 more doses of Tamiflu every month, so we will have the level we believe appropriate if we have a pandemic in this country." He said experts were planning for the eventuality of bird flu mutating to spread between humans. "The risk is very real," he said.
The EU has contingency plans to make €1bn (£680m) available for antiviral drugs and vaccines, but said it could only do so once the overall EU budget for 2007 to 2013 is agreed. Officials complained that agreement was being blocked by Britain.
