The European Union on Monday gave the green light to Italy's 100-million-euro aid package for the country's chicken farmers, badly hit by consumer panic over bird flu, according to Italian News Agency ANSA.

Italian Agriculture Minister Giovanni Alemanno said the European Commission had approved the emergency aid to the poultry industry, adding that a decree for parliamentary approval will be presented this week.

Speaking after a meeting of agriculture ministers in Brussels and talks with European Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel, Alemanno said the deal would allow Italy to face the emergency.

Boel's spokesman Michael Mann said the commissioner had " acknowledged Italy's problem."

Alemanno said the deal worked out with Brussels would allow Italy to help the poultry industry "not by providing (direct) economic aid, but through support to ensure the health, hygiene and sanitary conditions of the farms and in the sector's production."

Italy has seen a 70 percent plunge in poultry sales since the announcement on February 11 that the virus had been found in wild swans in three southern Italian regions.

Italian Farmers Federation Coldiretti stressed on Monday that consumer panic in Italy appeared to have hit sales harder than the other European countries also hit by the virus.

The Fedagri association, to which 90 percent of Italian poultry producers belong, said on Friday that the sector was close to collapse.

Consumer panic was sparked by the announcement that wild swans found dead in southern Italy had died of the H5N1 virus, the most virulent strain of bird flu.

Italian Farmers Confederation (CIA) said results of an instant poll carried out across the country showed that eight out of ten consumers admitted they would not buy poultry.

CIA said that the poultry sector has already lost some 550 million euros since October.

Source: Xinhua