Bulgaria's Agriculture Minister Nihat Kabil said Friday that everything was calm in the area where the first bird-flu cases in domestic fowls in the country have been registered.

There is no panic, Kabil said for private bTV, explaining that people were calm and that teams were working at full throttle to disinfect the area and do away with all the birds there. Four teams from the north of Bulgaria have travelled to the Slanchogled village in the south, where they are helping locals cope with the situation.

A disinfecting machine has been sent from the Danube city of Ruse, and another is expected soon from Smolyan, the minister said. He also vowed that all the 480 fowls in the area would be exterminated by ten in the morning on Friday.

The ministry didn't delay its actions over the avian flu threat, Kabil stressed, He explained that once they were certain that the birds carried the virus their actions were swift and by the book.

Bulgaria has already alerted the European Commission about the threat, and is now waiting on an embargo verdict. Kabil said he hoped that there wouldn't be a total ban on meat exports from the country, but that the EU would settle for a regional ban. There are no big poultry producers in the area where the avian flu was detected, and we are keeping things under control, so there really isn't the need for a total ban, the minister said.

Kabil concluded by vowing that all bird owners would be compensated for the killed fowls. He also said that despite the fact that many of the people in the predominantly Turks-populated area didn't speak Bulgarian, there was no problem in communication.

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