At least 20 countries have banned French poultry imports in response to the country's outbreak of bird flu, it was announced tonight.

Christine Lagarde, France's junior Trade Minister, said that states imposing total or partial restrictions included Japan, Hong Kong, Morocco, Egypt, Thailand and North Korea.

Mme Lagarde said that the bans affected five percent of the total export market, which is Europe's largest and is worth €1.4 billion (£1 billion) a year.

Under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the World Trade Organisation’s rule book, it is left open for any member country to impose restriction on imports from others that it fears could spread disease.

Germany, Britain, Belgium, Luxembourg and Saudi Arabia - the five biggest importers of French poultry - are not believed to have done so.

The bans were put in place after French authorities announced on Saturday that the H5N1 strain of avian flu had been detected in a turkey farm in the eastern village of Versailleux, near Lyon. The discovery was the first confirmed case in commercial production in the European Union.

The urgency of tackling the disease was heightened with confirmation of Indonesia’s 20th human death from avian flu. A 27-year-old woman from West Java Province developed symptoms on February 13 and died a week later. The overall human eath toll from the virus now stands at 93.

France today began vaccinating more than 300,000 geese and ducks in the department of the Landes, in the southwest of the country, an area that is famed for its foie gras and deemed to be at risk from the spread of the virus by migratory birds.

However, opinion is divided over whether vaccination helps to support trade or makes the situation more difficult, with some markets shunning meat from countries with vaccination programmes.

Britain has criticised the use of vaccines in poultry, saying they could mask the effects of the disease and make it more difficult to tackle its spread among flocks.

The Department for the Environment Farming and Rural Affairs (Defra) has ordered a stockpile of two million doses of the vaccine, mainly for use on zoo birds, but it is not due to arrive for several weeks.

Meanwhile, Niger has become the second West African country to be hit by a virus which is spreading among birds at great speed. Tests on domestic ducks from Niger have shown positive results for the H5N1 bird flu virus, the World Animal Health Organisation (OIE) said. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, has reported bird flu in six states.

Experts fear the virus could spread rapidly throughout Africa where chickens live in millions of homes and health, veterinary and laboratory services are often poor.

Avian flu remains essentially an animal disease which humans contract only through close contact with infected birds. However, there are fears that it could mutate into a form that passes easily from person to person, sparking a pandemic.

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