EU executive says no need to revise bird flu laws

BRUSSELS, Feb 14 (Reuters) Recent outbreaks of bird flu in Britain and Hungary, and any link between the two, provide no reason to alter European Union laws that aim to contain and control the disease, the European Commission said today.

The EU has strict laws with which each member country must comply when it suspects, or confirms, an outbreak of bird flu on its territory. They also apply if a country is nervous about an outbreak of the disease in a neighbouring EU state.

Last revised in 2005, they cover animal movements, slaughter of animals deemed to be at risk of contracting or spreading the disease, trade in live animals and animal products as well as prescribed protection zones that must surround the outbreak.

''There is no evidence that our legislation is lacking in any way or that there are any gaps. We have nothing at this stage that would cause us to change the legislation,'' an official of the EU's executive arm said.

''But that's not to say that there hasn't been a failure in implementation (of EU law),'' he told reporters. ''It's possible that fraud is a factor and the best legislation in the world cannot exclude that possibility.'' Britain and Hungary have been arguing over the likely source of the recent bird flu contamination in Britain, which has led to the destruction of tens of thousands of turkeys.

Earlier this week, British scientists said they had found a direct link between the two outbreaks.

Tests on H5N1 bird flu viruses found in Britain and Hungary showed they were genetically almost identical, with the most likely transmission route from poultry to poultry, they said.

Hungary disagrees and says there is no evidence to show that poultry or poultry products from Hungary could have transmitted the H5N1 virus to Britain.

''There are various vector (method of transmission) possibilities like vehicle movements, people and animal movements -- including wild birds, although that would appear to be less likely,'' the Commission official said.

''It would appear to be a link based on movements of vehicles or poultry. But we don't know what vector it would be,'' he said, It is up to the EU countries concerned to investigate to determine the source of any disease outbreak.

''We are not inspectors, we control the controllers and check that national inspectors are doing the right thing to see that EU legislation is properly enforced,'' he said.

Reuters KR RN2039