Avian quarantine review published

An independent review of the UK's avian quarantine system has been published.

The review was commissioned to assess the effectiveness of the avian quarantine system, to ensure that animal diseases don't enter the country via captive birds.

The main conclusions include:

• Imports of captive birds should be allowed to continue. However, existing quarantine procedures should be improved to further reduce the risk, and should be kept under review.
• Because imports into the EU are governed by EU rules, and movements within the Community are less rigorously controlled, the health protection provided by avian quarantine of imported captive birds can only be achieved if action is taken at EU level.
• Avian flu and Newcastle disease present little risk to public health, and if the modified quarantine system were operating throughout the EU the risk from imports of captive birds would be negligible.