December 12 (SeeNews) - The Moldovan Agriculture Ministry on Wednesday banned eggs and poultry imports from Poland due to cases of highly contagious bird flu there.
Poland reported a case of H5N1 avian influenza in the central province of Mazowieckie. This is the fourth outbreak of bird flue in Poland detected in December, the ministry said in a statement.
It added that the Moldovan veterinary authorities are tightening measures to prevent the spread of bird flu in the country.
The Caucasus and the southern Balkans are high-risk areas for the spread of avian flu, according to United Nations studies. The H5N1 virus, potentially deadly to humans, has been detected in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia and Greece since October 2005, but all outbreaks were successfully contained. Moldova's neighbour Romania, situated on one of the major routes of migratory birds in Europe, has been hit hard by avian flu outbreaks in domestic birds. It has detected more than 50 outbreaks of the H5N1 virus subtype in its southern regions since reporting the first case in October 2005. The country has not reported any cases of bird flu in humans.
The H5N1 avian influenza strain has so far killed 206 of the 335 people that have been infected worldwide, data of the World Health Organization showed.