Avian flu spreading across Europe, Asia and Africa

Several European countries report first cases in poultry flocks

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses are being detected in the wild bird and domestic poultry in ever more countries in Europe, Asia and Africa.

Over the last week alone, outbreaks in poultry have been confirmed in 15 countries. In Europe, France has been particularly hard hit by the disease, while Greece, Croatia, Ukraine and Russia have recently reported their first cases in commercial birds. The disease has returned to Uganda, Nigeria and Egypt, and new outbreaks have been reported in India, Japan and Taiwan.

Europe: Greece, Croatia, Ukraine, Russia report first avian flu outbreaks in poultry

Based on reports from the veterinary authorities to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), France is the country whose poultry sector has been most affected by the H5N8 variant of  HPAI with a further 34 outbreaks confirmed within the last week. All but one of these outbreaks was in the department of Landes in the south-west of the country, with the other cases in the western region of Deux-Sèvres. These latest occurrences alone led to the death or destruction of almost 250,000 domestic birds. The same virus has been detected in wild birds found dead in three regions.

According to the French ministry of agriculture, the total number of confirmed HPAI outbreaks caused by the H5N8 virus has now reached 145, with a further eight cases in wild birds.

In the last week, three European countries have reported their first cases of H5N8 HPAI in commercial poultry: Greece, Croatia and Ukraine.

Following a previous outbreak in a small backyard flock on the north-east of the country, Croatia has confirmed the H5N8 virus on a farm with 927 poultry in the county of Zagreb, as well as in a dead swan in the same region.

Ukraine has notified OIE of three outbreaks of H5N8 HPAI. Affected were a backyard flock in the Odessa region in the south-west of the country, and a farm in Chernivtsi oblast in the west, affecting a total of more than 10,000 birds. The same virus has also been detected in a number of wild birds found dead in Chernivtsi.

Following previous confirmation of the detection of the H5N8 virus in poultry, further outbreaks have been reported to the OIE by the veterinary authorities in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and the U.K.

Germany’s most recent cases have led to the death or destruction of more than 58,000 head of poultry. Outbreaks were recorded at two farms in North Rhine-Westphalia, one in Brandenburg and in a small backyard flock in Bavaria. There were also cases in a wild bird in Brandenburg and at a zoo in Saxony-Anhalt.

Two farms and a backyard flock were involved in Poland’s latest H5N8 outbreaks. Covering the provinces of Lesser Poland in the south of the country, Lower Silesia in the south-west and Greater Poland in the west, more than 4,100 domestic poultry were hit by these outbreaks.

HPAI in the Czech Republic has so far been confined to the non-commercial poultry sector, with a further five new outbreaks in the last week. Almost 1,000 birds from mixed flocks in Central Bohemia, South Moravia and South Bohemia died or were destroyed as a result.

In the U.K., the H5N8 virus has been detected in a flock of 6,640 fattening turkeys at Louth in Lincolnshire in eastern England. According to the agriculture ministry (DEFRA), there is unlikely to be a direct link to the previous case outbreak in a flock of turkeys at a nearby farm one month ago, but an investigation is under way.

The H5N8 virus has also been confirmed in wild birds in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and at three locations in the UK. A second detection of the H5N5 variant of the HPAI virus in a wild bird at a national park in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region in north-eastern Italy.

It has been reported to OIE by the veterinary authority in Russia that an HPAI virus of the H5 family was detected last month in a mass mortality of wild swans in Krasnodar krai. A mixed flock in the same region as well as two turkey farms in Rostov oblast have also tested positive for an H5 virus, leading to the death or destruction of almost 227,000 poultry.

Africa: Avian flu returns to Uganda, Nigeria, and Egypt

Uganda’s agriculture ministry has reported to the OIE its first outbreak of HPAI involving virus of the H5 group. In Masaka district in central Uganda, 30,000 village poultry were found to be infected with the virus following the deaths of seven birds. These cases follow reports of mass mortality in wild species on nearby Lake Victoria. The ministry has called for an urgent response to protect the country’s 30 million poultry.

Following the detection of the H5N1 HPAI virus in poultry reported last month, Nigeria has reported a further three outbreaks of the disease. More than 6,600 birds were affected by the outbreaks in the central states of Kaduna and Bauchi.

Egypt has previously reported to OIE the detection of the H5N8 HPAI virus in wild birds in Dumyat, but the same virus has now been found affecting a backyard flock of 190 ducks and chickens in Sharqia governate in the north of the country.

Asia: New outbreaks in India, Japan, and Taiwan

After two previous confirmed outbreaks of H5N8 HPAI in Kerala, the veterinary authority in India has informed OIE about 23 additional outbreaks in the southern state. These occurred in October and November of 2016. Affecting what is described in the official report as “village birds” in flocks of up to 169,000, more than 714,000 poultry died or were destroyed in these outbreaks.

Japan has reported to the OIE its eighth outbreak of HPAI caused by an H5N6 virus. It occurred in Gifu prefecture on the main island of Honshu, in a flock of more than 78,000 laying hens. Around 100 birds died and the rest have been destroyed.

There have been two new outbreaks of HPAI in Yunlin county, according to Focus Taiwan. More than 30,000 birds have been culled. The H5N2 variant of the HPAI virus has been confirmed at one location, and a member of the H5 family at the other farm. These bring to eight the number of HPAI outbreaks in Taiwan so far this year, with almost 94,000 birds destroyed.