Spokesman for the Commission Philip Tod said the EC adopted the decision late last night and added that the Permanent Committee on Food Chain and Animal Health, comprised of veterinary officials from the 25 EU member states, would discuss the decision on Tuesday.
"The decision ,,, was taken in response to a case of H5 avian influenza virus found in wild birds in Croatia," the Commission said in a statement.
The ban does not refer to poultry meat, as is the case with Romania and Turkey.
Tod also said the Commission proposed a one-month ban on the import of wild birds into the European Union for commercial purposes.
After detecting a bird flu case at the Grudnjak fish farm in eastern Croatia on Friday, Croatian authorities immediately sent tissue samples of dead birds to the EU avian influenza reference laboratory at Weybridge, Great Britain, for further testing. As it awaits results from Weybridge, the government is applying the same measures that would be in force as if the disease had been confirmed, including a ban on the export of poultry.