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Five Countries Boycott Dutch Poultry THE HAGUE, 10/08/06 - Russia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong have partly or wholly banned Dutch poultry and poultry products. These countries decided on the move because a mild variant of bird flu appeared in Voorthuizen last week, the agriculture ministry announced yesterday. Diplomats at the Dutch embassies in the five countries are trying to make it clear to the local authorities that there is nothing wrong with poultry meat and eggs from the Netherlands. The ministry had already announced Tuesday that an investigation had discovered no new cases after the infection in the village of Voorthuizen. Within the EU, there are no export problems, as member states are not allowed to impose trade restrictions on one another. The infection in Voorthuizen was passed on to the Organisation Mondiale de la Santé Animale (OMSA), which monitors the health of animals worldwide. Countries where a H5 or H7 bird flu variant is found are required to report for three months that they have avian influenza (bird flu). Because the 25,000 chickens at the Voorthuizen farm were destroyed on 2 August, the Netherlands should again have bird flu-free status on 2 November. The virus found in Voorthuizen was a mild variant of H7N7. A more serious variant of this virus hit the Dutch poultry sector hard in 2003. At that time, 30.7 million birds had to be destroyed. Nineteen people were infected with the virus and one vet died. Close www.nisnews.nl