Bird Flu Center

Italian authorities are preparing for a possible wave of bird flu outbreaks in their country in the following months. Late summer will bring new flocks of migratory birds on a path from Asia and eastern Europe into the South of the continent and then Africa. Fowl carrying the virus is thought to begin arriving in Europe on August 20th and apparently the highest risk will be in the months of September and October, as a high ranking health official from the Italian government declared. Birds that have previously been in infected areas such as Siberia and the Danube Delta are thought to carry the highest risk of bringing the virus to the country. Back in February, 19 wild birds arriving from the Balkans were found to be infected with the most deadly avian influenza strain H5N1. The area was put on surveillance and poultry movement was restricted at the time. As no reports of infected domestic poultry or human cases were subsequently found in Italy, the measures proved effective. However, as the disease has killed at least 134 people worldwide, authorities are trying to make sure no cases will appear on Italian soil. An aid of 45 million euros will be given to the local poultry industry by the Italian government and the European Union, as sales have dropped by 80% following the spread of the disease worldwide.

European Commission members have agreed that an investigation is necessary into the case of state aid granted by Italy to support its poultry industry, badly affected by falling sales after the recent bird flu outbreaks around the world. The plan was for the Italian government to buy 17,000 tonnes of poultry meat as well as other poultry products which were initially intended for human consumption, suspend tax payments and social security contributions and grant some sort of financial aid for loans to help convert and restructure poultry businesses, in the light of recent bird flu scares.

The European Commission considers these measures unnecessary and endangering the Community state aid provisions. There is an interval of one month where the Italian government is allowed to submit its comments back to the Brussels committee and afterwards any other interested party will be allowed to make comments, before the Commission will make a decision. The investigation is a result of the European Union’s strict and complex rules regarding state aid, initially designed to ensure that no government can use it to offer an unfair advantage to any single sector.