Romania?s PM Takes Over Lead Of Expert-Team On Bird-Flu Outbreak
BUCHAREST, May 24
Romania?s Premier Calin Popescu Tariceanu took over Wednesday from the minister of agriculture Gheorghe Flutur the leadership of the joint commission managing the bird flu outbreak, after President Traian Basescu criticized the latter?s handling of the crisis.
?An outsider gets the idea there is a lack of coordination which turns us into the laughing stock of both the population and the European Union,? said Basescu, chairing a government session for the first time after his back surgery on May 9 in Vienna, to fix a herniated disc. Basescu also commented on the apparent disarray the executive branch was in, saying it invented words for putting a positive spin on events.
?What is that a ?relaxed quarantine??! Are we to find out in a short while there is also a hard quarantine and a flask one to be enforced?!? asked Basescu rhetorically.
He pointed out the need for Romania?s veterinary authorities to find out which was the actual source of the bird flu virus spread this time around. The previous wave of bird flu outbreaks, lasting from October to April, occurred on individual farms and was related to the contact of domestic birds with the wild life.
In early May Romania had its first outbreak of bird flu in three chicken farms in the central Romania county of Brasov. The session?s agenda included the report of Flutur on the economic impact of the bird flu on the poultry breeders, measures taken to fight the bird flu and a project for the reorganization of the sanitary-veterinary services.
Romania must show the European Union by October that it can deal with food safety issues if it wants to join the 25-member block on January 1, 2007. Three of the four still red-flagged issues the country has to solve by fall deal with the agriculture and the veterinary fields.
BUCHAREST, May 24
Romania?s Premier Calin Popescu Tariceanu took over Wednesday from the minister of agriculture Gheorghe Flutur the leadership of the joint commission managing the bird flu outbreak, after President Traian Basescu criticized the latter?s handling of the crisis.
?An outsider gets the idea there is a lack of coordination which turns us into the laughing stock of both the population and the European Union,? said Basescu, chairing a government session for the first time after his back surgery on May 9 in Vienna, to fix a herniated disc. Basescu also commented on the apparent disarray the executive branch was in, saying it invented words for putting a positive spin on events.
?What is that a ?relaxed quarantine??! Are we to find out in a short while there is also a hard quarantine and a flask one to be enforced?!? asked Basescu rhetorically.
He pointed out the need for Romania?s veterinary authorities to find out which was the actual source of the bird flu virus spread this time around. The previous wave of bird flu outbreaks, lasting from October to April, occurred on individual farms and was related to the contact of domestic birds with the wild life.
In early May Romania had its first outbreak of bird flu in three chicken farms in the central Romania county of Brasov. The session?s agenda included the report of Flutur on the economic impact of the bird flu on the poultry breeders, measures taken to fight the bird flu and a project for the reorganization of the sanitary-veterinary services.
Romania must show the European Union by October that it can deal with food safety issues if it wants to join the 25-member block on January 1, 2007. Three of the four still red-flagged issues the country has to solve by fall deal with the agriculture and the veterinary fields.