Europeans must learn to live with avian flu as the disease has become so widespread in wild birds that it be around for some time, the European Union's health chief today.
The virus has now spread to ten countries in Europe.
The 25-nation bloc had adequate measures to contain the disease when it occurred, and would eventually eliminate it. But this would take time, Markos Kyprianou told a news conference during an informal meeting of EU health ministers in Vienna today.
"Given that the virus is everywhere now, it's a problem that will stay for some time," Mr Kyprianou said. "Both us and the European public have to learn to live with this problem, without any panic. We have the measures, we have the legislation, we have the experience to deal with similar problems. We have done so in the past, we can deal with it now and in the future."
At the meeting, the ministers agreed to launch a public awareness campaign on bird flu in an effort to ease growing fears over health and food safety as the virus continues to spread among birds.
Austrian Health Minister Maria Rauch-Kallat said the ministers agreed "that we all need a co-ordinated information policy" on risks and what preventative measures farmers and the general public can take to ensure the virus does not spread further.
Ms Rauch-Kallat said that some EU governments were ill-prepared to deal with large scale H5N1 outbreaks. She said such rules, targeted on poultry farmers and other risk groups including children and the elderly, would focus on ensuring the clean and safe handling of poultry and poultry meat products.
"It is important that we co-ordinate better," said Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney.
German Health Minister Ulla Schmidt said it was key not to raise panic among people, but to reassure them that EU governments were taking the needed precautionary measures to prevent the disease from spreading.
The virus, which is endemic in birds in parts of Asia, is spreading deeper into Europe, with infections reported in wild birds in a number of countries. However, the EU has not yet reported any human victims of the virus.
Bird flu remains essentially an animal disease, but has killed more than 90 people since late 2003.
Victims contract the virus through close contact with infected birds. Experts fear it is only a matter of time before it changes into a form that passes easily between humans, sparking a pandemic in which millions could die.
Mr Kyprianou said he would start a debate among European health ministers within the next two weeks about whether they wanted to create an EU-wide stockpile of antiviral drugs for emergencies like a sudden outbreak of bird flu among humans.