WARSAW, Dec 9 (Reuters) -Poland expects the European Commission to extend an import ban on poultry and eggs after a fresh outbreak of deadly H5N1 bird flu virus was discovered on Saturday. "We have informed the European Commission of the areas from which meat and eggs cannot be exported and expect the ban to be extended by probably another two weeks," chief veterinary officer Ewa Lech told a news conference on Sunday. She said that thousands of birds were being culled in what is one of Poland's principal poultry-raising areas. The latest outbreak of avian flu has been diagnosed in 11 villages of central Poland's Zuromin area, about 50 km (30 miles) from three sites discovered in the Plock area last week. An EU ban on Polish poultry from the Plock area had been expected to be lifted at the start of January if no more infected birds were detected. More than 11,000 turkeys were culled at three poultry farms where last week's outbreak occurred. "We have informed the EC, our neighbours Ukraine, Belarus and Russia as well as China of the outbreak and there seems to be understanding on their part," farm minister Marek Sawicki told the news conference. Standard safety procedures have been deployed including a 3-km (1.9-mile) danger zone around the contaminated areas and a 10-km (6-mile) safety perimeter. People and vehicles entering and leaving the affected poultry farms must pass over disinfectant mats and farmers have been ordered to keep poultry indoors. The recent outbreaks were Poland's first cases of the H5N1 virus since a number of infected wild swans were discovered near the northern city of Torun in 2006. One of the EU's biggest poultry producers, Poland exported 230,000 tonnes of poultry to European markets last year.(Reporting by Rob Strybel)
