The European Commission will decide by tomorrow on a possible import ban on live wild birds, as called for by the UK after a South American parrot died from the bird flu virus in quarantine there, an EU spokesperson said yesterday.

"The commission is currently considering the issue, it will decide by Tuesday," said Stefaan de Rynck.

The commission has previously considered such a move counterproductive because it would encourage a black market outside the current health and quarantine controls.

However the British proposal, which will be raised at an EU agricultural ministers' meeting today and tomorrow in Luxembourg, has the backing of some other member states, according to a commission source.

The UK's Animal Welfare Minister Ben Bradshaw said his government made a formal request on Saturday to the commission to ban the import of all "live wild birds" from anywhere in the world.

A spokesperson for the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said imports of poultry, which are domesticated birds, would still be allowed.

The EU until now has banned bird imports from countries which already have cases of avian flu, such as Romania, Thailand and Turkey, according to DEFRA.

British scientists are still trying to determine whether the parrot from Suriname died of the H5N1 strain hitting Southeast Asia, devastating poultry stocks and killing more than 60 people there.

Chief veterinary officer Debby Reynolds said the test results on the parrot would probably be made early in the week.

Meanwhile, Sweden confirmed on Saturday that a duck that died in the country was carrying bird flu.

The country's national veterinary institute carried out tests on four of the seven ducks found dead on Friday in Eskilstuna in western Sweden and found one of them tested positive for avian influenza.

Tests on the duck showed it was not infected by the strain of H5N1 that has killed more than 60 people in Asia, Swedish press agency TT said yesterday, citing agricultural officials.

H5N1 is easily transmitted between birds, but is hard for humans to contract. However, experts fear a wider spread of the disease might lead to the virus mutating into a form that can be transmitted among humans and cause a pandemic that could kill millions.

The case strengthened fears that the epidemic would further spread throughout Europe.

India takes action

And amid concerns that the disease could spread even further afield, Indian authorities have started testing migratory birds for avian flu in the east of the country, a minister said on Saturday.

There has been no reported case of bird flu in India but the spread of the virus to Europe from Asia has led to concern among health officials in the country.

Five bird sanctuaries in the eastern state of West Bengal receive thousands of migratory birds from Siberia and central Asia every winter.

"We are collecting blood samples of migratory birds as a precautionary measure because they come from a region affected by bird flu," said Anisur Rahaman, animal resources development minister.

So far, reports of 250 tests are negative, Rahaman said.

Authorities in neighboring Orissa State, home to one of Asia's largest lakes at Chilka, where thousands of migratory birds arrive every week, have also said birds will be monitored for signs of avian flu.

In Thailand, a boy whose father died from bird flu on Thursday has been confirmed as infected by the virus, raising fear that the virus could spread among human beings. The father was Thailand's 13th bird flu fatality.

On Saturday, health officials said the father and his 7-year-old boy did not transmit the virus to each other and that both contacted the virus from their neighbor's sick chickens.

The boy would soon be released from hospital, said the officials.

Thailand said it is fully prepared to cope with the disease. The Asian country said 1,300 mobile teams are now ready to travel immediately to areas stricken by the virus.

Rapid measures

In the wake of the first bird flu cases on its territory, Croatia took swift measures on Saturday to check the spread of the virus.

Police sealed off the area within a three-kilometer radius of a fish pond where six swans were confirmed to carry the virus. All poultry within the radius were killed yesterday and other preventive measures will be applied in a wider area in the region.

In Italy, the government announced on Saturday that it started banning imports of live poultry of all species and all related products from Croatia, Romania and other Balkan countries.

Apart from the European countries, which are increasingly gripped by the deadly virus, many nations in Latin America, Africa and Asia have also announced plans to curb the epidemic.

In Latin America, regional groups such as the Andean Community and the South American Common Market convened special meetings on Saturday to discuss measures for tackling the bird flu threat, while Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay and Paraguay announced plans to curb the virus.

(China Daily October 24, 2005)