Ireland may face EU action over UK bird flu ban

BRUSSELS, Feb 7 (Reuters) Ireland could face legal action by the European Commission over a partial ban on imports of British poultry following discovery of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in England, an EU official said today.

Ireland announced on Monday it was not allowing imports of poultry from Britain for ''gatherings and shows'' as a precautionary measure. The ban did not include birds from British-ruled Northern Ireland.

''Any ban in this case by an EU country against another EU member is illegal,'' a spokeswoman for EU health chief Markos Kyprianou said.

''We will be looking into this in more detail, but the procedure as you know is that any breaches of EU law can lead to infringement procedures being taken against that country.'' The EU's executive arm issues up to two warnings to countries who fail to adhere to the bloc's rules and if they do not to respond positively, the case is brought before the European Court of Justice - Europe's highest court.

A spokesman for the Irish government confirmed that a ''specific and restrictive'' ban on live poultry from Britain was in place for events such as pigeon racing and agricultural shows. He said Ireland ''had acted within EU laws''.

Many countries outside of the 27-member bloc, such as Japan and Russia, have banned imports from Britain following the discovery of the highly pathogenic bird flu strain on a farm in Suffolk in eastern England.

The European Commission described these bans as ''unnecessary'' and said it was satisfied with the measures taken by the British authorities.

A buffer zone with a radius of 1.8 miles (3km) has been created around the infected farm -- run by Europe's largest Turkey producer, Bernard Matthews -- with a further 4.5 miles (7km) under so-called targeted surveillance.

The virus has killed 166 people since 2003 according to the World Health Organisation with cases of H5N1 confirmed in more than 50 countries.

REUTERS BDP RAI2329