Italian consumer groups called on the government on Sunday to step up anti-bird flu measures, saying that only a small percentage of poultry farms in southern Italy were being inspected.

"We want more inspections across the country, so that possible outbreaks of bird flu can be avoided," the associations said.

They insisted that private poultry farms in particular were not being adequately monitored.

"In the south, only 10 percent of these farms have been inspected by the competent authorities," the consumer groups said.

Italy has begun inspecting poultry farms and testing captured migratory birds amid fears over the spread of a deadly strain of bird flu known as H5N1.

The Italian Health Ministry said last week that no trace of bird flu had shown up in tests on almost 600 migratory birds.

Concern over bird flu increased in Europe this month after H5N1 spread to European Russia, Turkey, Croatia and Romania through migratory birds.

Italy has banned imports of live poultry, game birds and poultry products from Croatia, Romania and other Balkan states.

Meanwhile, Italian farmers have been staging protests over the fall in poultry sales, saying the industry had been "brought to its knees" by the bird flu scare.

This weekend, poultry farmers took to the streets of a number of cities to encourage consumers to put chicken and eggs back on their shopping lists.

The farmers' association CIA said that chicken consumption has plunged 60 percent since the bird flu crisis began while prices have fallen 55 percent.

It said that 20 percent of Italy's 6,150 poultry farmers risk going bust and that thousands of people could lose their jobs in an industry that employs more than 80,000.

Source: Xinhua