Avian flu keeps spreading around the globe
Avian flu threat looms over the global poultry industry as the virus is now present in Europe, Asia, North America and Africa. The highest impact was felt by the European producers, with a high number of outbreaks reported in the last four months in Poland, Ukraine, Russia, France, Italy, the UK, the Netherlands and Germany. More than that, an HPAI alert has been triggered in the Iberic Peninsula once the bird flu has reached both Portugal and Spain.
But the situation does not resume to Europe only. According to the World Organization for Animal Health, 40 countries in Europe, Asia, North America and Africa were fighting for the last months to keep the threat under control. Israel has culled over one million birds since the beginning of 2022 in what officials called "the worst bird flu outbreak ever". The H5N1, H5N3, H5N4, H5N5, H5N6 and H5N8 subtypes of HPAI are circulating in bird and poultry populations across the globe, sparking concern at OIE, which called this an “unprecedented genetic variability of subtypes ... creating an epidemiologically challenging landscape.”
Last month, OIE Director General Monique Eloit told Reuters that "this time the situation is more difficult and riskier because we see more variants emerge, which make them harder to follow. Eventually, the risk is that the virus mutates or that it mixes with a human flu virus that can be transmitted between humans then suddenly it takes on a new dimension."
Also, Germany’s Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, the Friedrich Loeffler Institute, told the German Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) that Europe is experiencing its “strongest avian flu epidemic ever.”
The institute added that “there is no end in sight” as the virus spreads throughout the continent and around the world, with new cases reported on a daily basis. The latest cases of avian flu reported this week comes from the US, Indiana, where the virus was found on a turkey farm with 29,000 birds. Indiana is the third-largest US turkey-producing state, No. 1 in duck production and No. 2 in table eggs and egg-laying chickens, according to official data. Altogether, at least 90 cases of Eurasian H5 HPAI have been reported to the USDA since January, with nine of the cases confirmed as the H5N1 subtype. The first cases of the virus were detected in South Carolina in mid-January before the virus spread to North Carolina, Virginia and Florida in recent weeks.
In the same region, Canada confirmed H5N1 bird flu in a commercial poultry flock in Nova Scotia, triggering varying trade restrictions from importers, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said last week.
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