Opinion of the Scientific Panel on Animal Health and Welfare (AHAW) on a request from the Commission related with animal health and welfare risks associated with the import of wild birds other than poultry into the European Union

No abstract available

The European Commission is increasingly conscious of the animal health and welfare risks posed by the import of wild birds other than poultry into the European Union. Many of these birds are destined to be kept as pets, for show or in zoos. Limited scientific evidence is already available on specific aspects of this issue.
Therefore, a mandate was sent by the Commission to EFSA asking for a qualitative risk assessment to determine 1) the animal health and welfare risks associated with the import of wild birds other than poultry into the EU; 2) the risk of introducing “exotic” infectious agents into the EU which could spread among the indigenous EU bird populations, and 3) the possible tools and options which could reduce any identified risks.
At the Plenary Meeting of 14/15 March 2005, the AHAW Panel decided to entrust the scientific report and risk assessment to a WG under the Chairmanship of Dr. James Michael Sharp. The Scientific Opinion was adopted at the Plenary Meeting on 26/27 October 2006.
The Scientific Report considers all relevant health and welfare aspects using two qualitative risk assessments, one for health and the other for welfare, and leads to the conclusions and recommendations forming the Scientific Opinion by the AHAW Panel.
The most relevant conclusions and recommendations were:

According to CITES, EU was the major importer of wild birds with around 800.000 birds imported each year from 1999 up to the ban. A big proportion of the birds imported into the EU were transported over large distances within the EU before arriving at the final quarantine station from the BIP. Therefore, it was recommended that the distances that birds are transported between BIP and quarantine should be reduced to the minimum possible.

With respect to the health aspects the probability of infectious agents being introduced into the EU by the release from quarantine of wild captured birds varies from negligible to high. The probability that any individual wild captured bird is infected at release will depend upon the species and the probability of sub-clinical shedding. This led to a recommendation that the need to continue the importation of captive wild birds should be carefully considered. Improvements at the point of export were regarded to have the most impact in reducing the probability that infected birds would be presented for transport to the EU. The testing of the imported captive birds as well as the validation and harmonisation of the current diagnostic test was suggested, together with the development of the new and more rapid diagnostic techniques in order to support global surveillance efforts.

On the welfare aspects the Panel concluded that the during the captive bird pathway, several hazards lead to adverse consequences that are very serious for the welfare of the birds, indicated by high mortality. These adverse consequences vary at different stages of the pathway but the probability of occurring is lower once the birds leave the Third Country. This led to a recommendation that the need to continue the importation of captive wild birds should be carefully considered, unless measures can be put in place to adequately protect the welfare of captured wild birds at all stages. Captive bred birds are subjected to fewer hazards than those experienced by captive wild birds. Captive breeding with high animal welfare standards therefore could be considered as an alternative for as many species as possible, providing that a reliable method of distinguishing wild caught birds from captive bred birds is available

Wild birds, risk assessment, welfare aspects, health aspects, needs of birds, captive birds, avian diseases, Avian Influenza, Newcastle Disease, chlamydiosis.