The government's order on keeping poultry in enclosed spaces will remain in force within 20 kilometres of
the fish farm in Nasice and the fish farm Grudnjak in the village of Zdenci, where the bird flu virus was found on October 21, Cobankovic said at a news conference.
The ban on the transport of animals and disinfection barriers will be lifted within three kilometres of the two fish farms.
The new measures will go into force on Friday, the minister said.
Nikola Vrabac of the Croatian Veterinary Chamber said that every household whose poultry was killed in a recent operation to prevent the spreading of bird flu would be given day-old chickens free of charge.
All competent services continue to closely monitor the situation regarding bird flu, Cobankovic said.
The Poultry Centre at the Croatian Veterinary Institute has processed a half of 3,070 samples taken from wild birds and domestic poultry, and none of the checked samples were positive for bird flu, Cobankovic said, recalling that last week the government lifted a ban on wild bird hunt, which he said did not include migratory birds.
Poultry Centre head Vladimir Savic said that the danger of bird flu reappearing existed as long as wild birds were migrating, which would last until mid-December.
The head of the crisis committee on bird flu, Mate Brstilo, said there was no reason to avoid meat and poultry products.
Minister Cobankovic said that the decreased sales of poultry products had caused a difficult situation in the poultry industry and added that the government would propose measures next week to help that sector.