Third bird flu outbreak in Germany in a short space of time
Published: Thursday, Nov 23rd 2023, 15:50
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In Germany, the highly pathogenic bird flu has broken out in at least three farms within a few days. The responsible Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI) had upgraded the risk of the virus entering farms through wild birds from "moderate" to "high" in mid-November.
After cases became known in farms in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Lower Saxony on Wednesday, Thuringia also reported highly pathogenic bird flu (avian influenza) on Thursday. It had broken out in a domestic poultry flock in Greussen, according to the Thuringian Ministry of Health in Erfurt.
Before these outbreaks, the last time highly pathogenic avian influenza occurred in farms in Germany was in July, according to FLI spokeswoman Elke Reinking. "So there was a kind of summer break here." Since mid-October, an increasing number of outbreaks in poultry and cases in wild birds have been reported in Europe. In Germany, an increased number of dead wigeons were found locally in the Wadden Sea National Park on the Schleswig-Holstein North Sea coast at the beginning of November, among other places, in which the highly pathogenic virus (HPAI H5) was detected.
The bird flu situation is also being monitored in Switzerland, as the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) writes on its website. Protective measures were in place throughout Switzerland in winter 2022/23 to contain the bird flu virus. However, these were lifted again in the spring.
©Keystone/SDA
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