Germany’s bird flu wave set to move south, animal authority warns

Ducks from a plant infected with avian influenza are taken out of the container in which they were stunned with gas and killed. Credit: Christophe Gateau/dpa

 

The current wave of bird flu in Germany is likely to spread south from the northern states where it is now most prevalent, the country’s animal health authority warned on Sunday.

The Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI) said infection numbers were continuing to rise. “An easing of the situation is not in sight,” FLI president Christa Kühn said.

She noted that the annual bird migration in the autumn was in a south-westerly direction.

Kühn urged close monitoring and strict adherence to hygiene and biosecurity measures to contain the highly contagious and often fatal disease, which does not affect humans.

The institute has recorded around 50 outbreaks on poultry farms since the start of September, with the number almost doubling within the past week. More than 500,000 chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys have been culled as a precautionary measure.

To date, the northern states of Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein have been worst hit.

The number of affected farms this year currently totals 85. In 2021, 286 poultry farms were affected, with more than 2 million birds culled, according to agriculture publications.

The FLI has also confirmed the H5N1 virus in 250 wild bird carcasses, though the actual number of cases is believed to be far higher. Kühn stressed that collecting the carcasses remains essential to limit the spread of the virus.

 

Source: dpa