French agriculture minister urges vigilance over bird flu

France’s agriculture minister today urged “very strong vigilance” – but no panic – in the face of bird flu outbreaks in Britain and Hungary.

The French national food safety agency was to issue an assessment this afternoon of the risks that the H5N1 bird flu virus could again infect France, Europe’s largest poultry producer.

France was hit a year ago by the deadly virus at a turkey farm in the south-east.

Agriculture minister Dominique Bussereau ordered the assessment over the weekend, after Britain announced that a major turkey farm had been infected with H5N1.

The Hungarian outbreak last month was the first known case of the strain within the European Union since August 2006.

This morning Bussereau said France should adopt “very strong vigilance but no panic” in response.

“We should not dramatise the situation but we must tell the truth,” he said on RTL radio.

Bussereau expressed concern that it had taken a full day for France to be officially informed of the British outbreak.

EU food and animal health experts were to discuss the outbreak tomorrow.