Thursday, January 11, 2007

VISIT: http://www.worldparrottrust.org/ for detailed information about Wild Bird Imports Ban.

EU health experts tighten pet bird import rules
11 Jan 2007 15:11:24 GMT
Source: Reuters

BRUSSELS, Jan 11 (Reuters) - EU animal health experts have tightened rules for the import of live captive birds as part of the bloc's strategy to fight bird flu, the EU's executive Commission said in a statement on Thursday.

"Under the regulation agreed today, only specific countries or regions which have already been approved to export live commercial poultry will be allowed to export captive birds to the EU," it said.

The list of countries approved to export live captive birds to the EU would be limited to those already approved to export live poultry to EU markets, it said. These were Australia, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Israel, New Zealand and the United States, along with certain states in Brazil.

However, certain third countries that were geographically close to the European Union would be exempt from the new rules, it added -- Andorra, Lichtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, Switzerland and Vatican City.