As the panic about bird flu spreads across Europe, EU foreign ministers are urging global cooperation in efforts to tackle the threat of the deadly virus.
The action follows the revelation that Greece has possibly become the first EU member country to have the H5N1 strain of the virus.
Fierce international pressure on the Swiss drugmaker Roche to increase it's production of the antiviral flu drug Tamiflu, has forced the company to consider allowing rival firms and governments to produce it under licence for emergency pandemic use. GlaxoSmithKline is also ramping up production of its product Relenza, widely thought to be the lead candidate in the fight against avian influenza.
In an effort to calm the situation British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, chairing an emergency meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Luxembourg, said the discovery of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in Turkey and Romania was no cause for panic.
He reiterated that to date there is no evidence of any transfer of the virus to human beings.
Straw says he understands the public concern and believes that will be allayed if European Union and member states demonstrate there is effective coordinated action taking place.
EU health commissioner Markos Kyprianou, coordinating the 25-nation bloc's response to avian flu, said Brussels did not yet know whether the virus detected in a bird on the Aegean island of Chios was the deadly strain.
Greece has nevertheless introduced precautionary measures, banning exports of living poultry, meat and other poultry products from the island to EU member states and third countries.
The fear on the part of the scientific community is that if the H5N1 virus passes from birds to humans on a large scale it could mutate into a variety that could spread easily between humans.
In a virulent form, they say, this could kill millions worldwide.
The virus has killed more than 60 people in Asia since it first appeared there in 1997.
The foreign ministers say in a statement that the EU can not act effectively on its own in tackling a threat that could move so quickly across countries and continents.
They recognise avian and pandemic influenza as global threats and are calling for an international coordinated response.
The global nature of the threat is evident as the pharmaceutical industry, in an attempt to cover a shortfall in anti-viral agents that could help combat the virus, is offering closer collaboration within the industry.
Drug company Roche is apparently prepared to discuss granting a production licence for Tamiflu to rival firms including Indian generic drug maker Cipla.
David Reddy for Roche says however the firm had not as yet been approached by Cipla, which has said it could make a copy-cat version to help governments build stocks.