"There is no chance of avian flu appearing at poultry farms," said Cobankovic after he and Deputy Prime Minister Damir Polancec visited the "Vindija" food company's poultry farm and talked to local poultry breeders.
The minister said he was satisfied with the European Commission's positive assessment of the measures taken to prevent the spreading of bird flu in Croatia. The measures were drastic, but they had to be applied and were justified, Cobankovic said.
The export of Croatian poultry meat has not been halted due to bird flu, which is very important considering the importance of poultry breeding for the Croatian agriculture sector.
The ministry will continue working to prevent the spreading of the bird flu virus onto domestic poultry, he said.
Market damage caused by bird flu is evident, but difficult to estimate, the minister said, announcing another meeting with poultry breeders for next week to discuss possible measures to alleviate consequences of the damage.
PM Ivo Sanader, who visited Vindija as well, supported the ministry's measures in fighting bird flu. He dismissed media claims that the government should not have reacted so radically to the appearance of bird flu.
The purpose of the visit to Vindija is to show support to the meat-processing industry, Sanader said, adding that the government's main goal was to prevent the spreading of the disease from poultry to humans.
He thanked the national crisis committee for the prevention of bird flu, as well as people in eastern Croatia whose poultry was killed during last week's operations.
The PM recalled that the European Commission on Monday decided to ban the import of live poultry from Croatia, but that the ban did not cover processed poultry products.
Citizens need not be afraid of eating heat-processed chicken meat, said Sanader, who had a chicken meat meal with his associates in Varazdin.