Bulgaria banned on Thursday the import of live poultry, eggs, poultry and game meat and feathers- derived products from some European states with bird-flu quarantine, reported the press center of Bulgaria's Agriculture and Forest Ministry.

The ban concerns the 10 km-wide zone of protection and observation established to surround areas hit by A-type flu and regions with ongoing flu vaccination in Italy, Cyprus, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Croatia, Greece and the French departments of Ain, Loire-Atlantique, Vendee, La Lande and Meurthe- et-Moselle.

Thursday's order replaced a Feb. 25 ban on poultry import from all over the territories of these countries.

On Feb. 11, the EU confirmed the first H5N1 case in a dead swan at Bulgaria's Danube riverside. By now there are five swans in Bulgaria confirmed to carry H5N1 virus carried H5N1. Beside the EU, Bulgaria has already ceased the import and transit of live poultry, as well as plumage and feathers without heat treatment from Romania, Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan.

Source: Xinhua