Credit: Nicky Sullivan

Luxembourg's Ministry of Agriculture, Viticulture and Rural Development has recalled that it is forbidden to import poultry from abroad without a veterinary health certificate; this import ban aims to keep the Grand Duchy free from avian influenza (bird flu).

Still omnipresent in the wild bird population and among large poultry producers, the avian influenza virus is found increasingly often in small poultry farms in neighbouring countries.

In addition, a case of highly pathogenic avian influenza was detected in Belgium.

As Luxembourg has so far remained free from this highly pathogenic virus, the Veterinary Services Administration of the Ministry of Agriculture, Viticulture and Rural Development has recalled that it is forbidden to buy poultry abroad and then import them without health certificates which are valid in Luxembourg.

The intra-community exchange of animals provides for a certificate in which an official veterinarian certifies the absence of any suspicion of disease of the animals concerned, which allows Luxembourg to import poultry, for instance from neighbouring markets, without putting at risk the Grand Duchy's poultry population.