Industry News - PM

Bird flu expands to 10 European countries, culling continues


By Chris Scott on 11/28/2016

The European poultry industry is bracing for more bad news as the spread of the H5N8 strain of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus has expanded to 10 nations, according to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).

Less than one month after the first reports of H5N8, the OIE reports that bird flu has been confirmed in Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and Russia despite continuing biosecurity efforts.

Additional outbreaks also have been reported in India and Israel, and several nations –including Hong Kong and Ukraine – have launched bans on poultry and poultry products from several of the affected countries where wild birds and commercial flocks have been exposed to H5N8.

Meanwhile, bird culling continues: six farms in the Netherlands have already seen 500 birds die from the virus and officials are considering additional measures to protect the estimated 100 million hens, cows, pigs, sheep that help make the nation the world’s second-largest agricultural exporter.

Animal health officials in Sweden said they have destroyed 200,000 laying hens to reduce the risk of further infection. An estimated 27,000 birds died in the first weeks European states reported confirmed cases of HPAI in early November.


 
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