EU bans live U.S. poultry
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The ban applies only to imports of live chicks and eggs.
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BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The European Commission has announced a ban on imports of live chicks and eggs from the United States after the discovery of bird flu in Texas.
A Texas chicken flock was diagnosed with an "extremely infectious and fatal" form of bird flu Monday. Officials are monitoring farmworkers in the area as a precaution against the first U.S. outbreak of a severe form of the disease in 20 years.
"The Commission will therefore take immediate action and suspend the import of live birds and eggs from all of the United States," the EC said in a statement.
"The EU imports chicks and table and hatching eggs from the U.S.," it added. It gave no details of the size of the trade.
It said it planned to adopt its decision to ban the imports later on Tuesday and Health Commissioner David Byrne would inform EU agriculture ministers, who were meeting in Brussels.
The EU already has a ban on imports of Thai poultry.
Officials have said the strain in Texas was considered a low health threat to humans and different from the one blamed for the recent deaths of at least 22 people in Asia.
The Asian outbreak has alarmed scientists, who say it shows that a deadly strain of bird flu can jump species. Bangkok officials have also confirmed the deaths of two house cats from bird flu, the first domesticated mammals known to have contracted the disease in this outbreak.
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