Cobankovic reiterated that Croatia was the first country in the world to have diagnosed a bird flu virus in wild birds and prevented its spreading to domestic poultry.
Brstilo said that the reference laboratory in Waybridge, UK, sent reagents to the Zagreb-based Veterinary Institute which was now able to establish the N factor of avian influenza. So far, the institute's poultry centre has received 1,231 samples to be tested for bird flue and 369 blood samples taken in an operation to monitor the areas around fish ponds in Nasice and Orahovica, where dead swans infected with bird flu were discovered.
Over a half of the samples have been tested and so far none has been positive, Brstilo said.
He added that test results would be published every day and that all other measures would continue to be applied on the ground.
Cobankovic said that on Wednesday he had talked with his counterparts from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia-Montenegro and that he expected those countries to adjust their measures to the European Commission's recommendation about lifting a ban on the import of poultry meat and related products from Croatia.
Following reports that an ill swan, found at the Grudnjak fish pond near the eastern town of Orahovica, had a ring indicating that it had arrived from Balaton Lake in Hungary, Hungarian representatives contacted the Zagreb Veterinary Institute and the results of the tests on the swan are expected soon, Brstilo said.
Cobankovic and Brstilo reiterated that damages would be paid to owners of poultry from the area of the Grudnjak fish pond and the Nasice pond, which was culled after the discovery of a bird flu virus.