BRUSSELS In a recognition that bird flu has thrown Europe's poultry industry into an "unprecedented crisis," European Union countries called Monday for emergency aid to prop up the bloc's ailing poultry producers while trying to find ways to reassure jittery consumers. The European Commission, the EU's executive branch, said it would subsidize member countries for up to half the cost of reducing the production of chicks and eggs in order to support poultry prices, which have tumbled as consumers reduce consumption amid fears over bird flu. It said it would also consider financing measures ranging from buying stockpiles of uneaten chicken, slaughtering poultry in the event that export markets collapsed and financing national advertising campaigns trying to reassure consumers about the safety of European poultry. The EU agriculture commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, said the decline in consumer demand had created an "unprecedented crisis" for European farmers. "This is directly linked to consumers reacting to the news related to avian influenza," she said. "This type of crisis cannot be handled effectively within the existing framework," she added. Fischer Boel said that fear among the general public about bird flu had hit the industry severely, resulting in surplus stocks of more than 50,000 tons of meat products in Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands. In Germany, where the virulent H5N1 strain of the virus was detected in wild birds last month, demand has fallen by 20 percent and the poultry sector has lost nearly €150 million, or $182.5 million, since autumn. Since bird flu broke out in February, the Italian poultry sector has lost some €500,000 and laid off 30,000 workers as a result of a collapse in consumer demand caused by fears over bird flu. In France, where the virus was detected in farm-bred turkeys, the industry is losing about €40 million a month and sales have dropped by 20 percent since the beginning of the year. On Monday, the French agriculture minister, Dominique Bussereau, called for the EU to provide stronger measures to support producers, including providing money to subsidize the private storage of poultry meat and higher national subsidies for distressed poultry farmers. EU rules let national governments grant each farm up to €3,000 over three years without falling afoul of EU rules on state aid. EU law currently allows member countries to compensate farmers who are forced to slaughter poultry or disinfect their farms in the event of a substantial bird flu outbreak. But it does not cover loss of income caused by a drop in consumer demand. Michael Mann, a spokesman for Fischer Boel, said the EU was suffering from an information gap that was dampening European appetites for poultry. "There is obviously a lack of consumer information because at present there is no bird flu on any farms in the European Union ," he said. "And chicken is perfectly safe to eat if you cook it." The EU has continued to step up its measures against avian flu ever since countries including Italy, Germany and Austria detected the lethal strain known as H5N1 in wild birds, and France detected the virus in farm turkeys. The H5N1 strain has infiltrated poultry populations in Asia and killed 98 people working with poultry worldwide since 2003. The EU has intensified its measures against the disease by quarantining flocks and setting up early detection systems along the paths of migratory birds. It also has called on Europeans to avoid activities like hunting, which raise the risk of contact with contaminated birds. There is no human vaccine for the virulent strain of bird flu. But Roche, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to open a new U.S. manufacturing site for the production of its anti-viral drug Tamiflu, which health experts say may help defend humans against contracting the disease.