The effectiveness of Hungarian food safety measures are criticised since food safety officials confirmed a link between outbreaks of avian influenza in Hungarian domestic turkey flocks.

The UK Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs revealed that genetic coding within strains of the H5N1 virus found at both outbreaks matched almost a 100 per cent, suggesting a direct relation between contamination. With the possibility that the cross contamination can be responsible for the link, the EU is forced to review existing food safety measures, including more restrictive trade measures.

The EU has currently forbidden member states from banning Hungarian poultry products after satisfying itself that the country's officials had successfully carried out the blocs avian influenza directive to prevent a further spread of the outbreak. Under the directive in action, any member state that discovers a bird flu outbreak must impose a 3 km quarantine zone around the infected area.

This must then be accompanied by a further 10 km surveillance zone in which animals must remain indoors and are unable to be moved to any location other than the slaughterhouse. The H5N1 strain is usually carried by wild birds and then transmitted to domestic flocks. In rare cases the deadly disease can be transmitted to humans. H5N1 has so far infected 271 people worldwide, of whom 166 have died, mainly in Asia.

Source: CEE-Foodindustry