A meeting of EU veterinary officials to discuss the avian flu scare yesterday agreed that member states would step up surveillance of domestic and migratory birds.
Despite strong measures already taken in the Netherlands, the meeting concluded that immediate risk of the deadly bird flu reaching Europe from Siberia was "remote or low".
Despite a strong presentation by the Netherlands, which has taken the unilateral step of keeping all its poultry indoors, other member states remained sceptical that such a measure should be applied on an EU-wide basis.
Vets agreed that "a general ban on keeping poultry outdoors is a disproportionate measure at this time", the commission said later.
But the group did agree that member states should increase surveillance of domestic and migratory birds. It also recommended that all contingency plans across the EU be reviewed and suggested the introduction of "awareness programmes" for farmers.
After the meeting in Brussels, John Melville, a vet from the Department of Agriculture, said there was a "lack of scientific information concerning the involvement of wild birds".
He added that experts did not agree on whether a bird with avian flu could actually fly all the way to the EU countries. For its part the Government will continue its wait-and-see approach.
Meanwhile, BirdWatch Ireland warned against any measures directed against migratory birds. In a statement yesterday it said that although there was a theoretical risk that migrating birds could bring the deadly strain of H5N1 here, it considered that risk to be small.
"Even if this were to occur, the risk to humans would be negligible, " said the statement.
BirdWatch Ireland said most birds breeding in affected areas in Siberia would migrate to winter in the south and east of Europe and in Asia and would not visit these shores.
"It should also be noted that the Irish wintering populations of several species considered to pose a risk in other European countries, most notably brent goose and white-fronted goose, do not have a Siberian origin but instead come to Ireland from Iceland, Greenland or North America," it said.
It conceded that most of Ireland's wintering population of Bewick's swan, pochard, tufted duck, bar-tailed godwit and grey plover did seem to have a Siberian origin. Migrating birds from Asia have been blamed for bringing the disease into Russia.
The commission had already banned poultry imports from nine southeast Asian countries and in August extended the ban to imports from Russia and Kazakhstan.