"Avian influenza is not a problem of just one country or just one region. It is a challenge facing the entire health profession and other professions," Croatian Agriculture Minister Petar Cobankovic said in his presentation.
Over 100 people have died of bird flu since its appearance in Southeast Asia in 2003. In Europe, the disease has claimed at least four lives in Turkey.
"Croatia was the first country to discover the virus in wild birds before it was transmitted to domestic poultry," the head of the Centre for Poultry Breeding, Vladimir Savic, said in his talk on the history of the disease.
Savic said that the measures taken by Croatia in the autumn of 2005 to prevent bird flu from spreading were stricter and more extensive than the rules that were in effect in the European Union at the time.
All the participants concluded that the countries of Southeast Europe were well-prepared to combat avian influenza.