Bird flu comes to Poland just in time for Christmas

Another outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in Poland on the weekend means an extension of the export ban of Polish poultry and eggs for another two weeks.

Poland's chief veterinary officer Ewa Lech says the European Commission has been informed on which areas are affected.

Veterinary officials say 110,000 birds will be culled as a result of the outbreak and 52 industrial-scale poultry farms and 232 smaller family-owned holdings within the danger zone have been quarantined.

This latest outbreak of avian flu was discovered in 11 villages in the Masovian region, in central Poland's Zuromin district which is one of Poland's main poultry-raising areas.

The affected farms are 50 km from three three turkey farms near the city of Plock, where bird flu was discovered earlier this month which prompted the current EU ban on Polish poultry.

That ban was expected to be lifted at the start of January if no more infected birds were detected; in excess of 11,000 turkeys were culled at the three farms during that particular outbreak.

Authorities say they have also informed neighbouring countries Ukraine, Belarus and Russia as well as China of the outbreak.

Standard safety procedures have been deployed including a 3 km danger zone around the contaminated areas and another 10 km safety perimeter.

People and all vehicles entering and leaving the affected poultry farms must pass over disinfectant mats and farmers have been ordered to keep poultry indoors.

These most recent outbreaks are Poland's first cases of the H5N1 virus since a number of infected wild swans were discovered near the northern city of Torun in 2006.

Poland is one of the EU's biggest poultry producers and exported 230,000 tonnes of poultry to European markets last year and the economic losses are likely to be quite significant.

The European Union and neighbouring states such as Ukraine and Russia have imposed a ban on imports of poultry products from the region of the outbreak.