A leading meat company said it received a delivery of 5,500 birds under consignment. Eight percent were dead or in bad condition, while three were found to have the bird flu virus. But at least 661 pounds (300 kilograms) of infected meat, possibly contaminated with the virus, may already be in retail outlets.
To prevent panic among Polish consumers, the Sanitary Inspector did not reveal the names of the shops where the suspected meat were distributed.
To contain the disease, birds from the two infected farms were culled, farm workers confined to quarters, roads within the vicinity shut down and warnings were issued. The warnings included the dangers of touching birds and eating raw poultry meat and eggs. But Sawicki, in a radio interview, said there was no threat to people's lives and health anymore.
Jan Bondar, spokesman for the State Sanitary Inspectorate, said, "We have an economic, not a health problem. It has not yet been the case that a bird flu virus infected a person in Europe."
Sawicki promised affected farms will receive compensation for their slaughtered fowl, but said not all losses of affected farms will be covered. He is hopeful Poland's poultry industry will not be affected by the bird flu discovery, adding that other European Union countries like the United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Romania and Germany had undergone the same experience and survived.
