European Countries Continue to Battle H5N8 Avian Flu
EUROPE - A number of different European countries have announced new outbreaks of H5N8 strain highly pathogenic avian influenza in the past few days, including spread to new countries of Spain, Italy and Slovenia.
13 January 2017
2 minute read
By: The outbreaks were mostly in wild birds, but also in poultry flocks.
Germany and France suffered the largest numbers of avian flu outbreaks. Germany's 23 outbreaks affected several wild waterfowl, but five outbreaks were on turkey farms and one affected a layer farm. One zoo also had an outbreak that caused two birds to die. In all, over 83,000 birds were destroyed as a result of these outbreaks.
France reported 20 outbreaks, on farms and backyard holdings. Although most of the outbreaks were concentrated in the south-western corner of France, two outbreaks occurred in the western department of Deux-Sevres. Over 5000 birds died and over 84,000 were destroyed to contain the disease. France has also enacted pre-emptive culling measures to attempt to slow the spread of disease.
Poland reported 12 new outbreaks, mainly affecting farms in the Lubuskie region bordering Germany. Some were smaller backyard flocks. Nearly 140,000 birds were destroyed in Poland's containment measures.
Wild birds such as ducks, swans and eagles were affected in Finland, Romania, and the newly affected countries of Italy, Spain and Slovenia. Serbia's three outbreaks occurred in swans in nature parks, whilst Switzerland reported two outbreaks in wild birds.
