Bulgarian Agriculture Minister Nihat Kabil signed a decree on Thursday to renew the ban on all live bird and nearly all poultry product imports from Turkey, where a new outbreak of bird flu has been confirmed.

According to the decree, only thermic-treated virus-free guaranteed poultry products can be imported.

The decree also warned Bulgarians not to consume Turkish poultry products imported after December 27, unless they had received thermic treatment.

The decree will be implemented by the National Veterinary Service.

Bulgaria, so far free of bird flu, has also banned imports of all poultry products from Romania, Greece (a previous ban was lifted on Nov. 9), Macedonia, Croatia and Ukraine, and has ordered the close observation of possible human infections of the disease.

The Bulgarian government has also established a bird flu crisis control command operation to coordinate the national effort to prevent an epidemic. ()

Source: Xinhua