More outbreaks of avian influenza in Europe are likely to occur in the next few weeks as wild birds believed to transmit the virus migrate southward, said Matthew Stone, Deputy Director General of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), this week. North America, especially the United States where avian influenza last year led to the loss of approximately 50 million poultry, should also prepare for possible new cases this season, Stone cautioned.
Eight European countries and Israel have found cases of the highly contagious H5N8 strain of bird flu in the past few weeks and some ordered that poultry flocks be kept indoors to avoid the disease spreading. Most outbreaks involved wild birds but Germany, Hungary and Austria also reported cases in domestic duck and turkey farms where all poultry had to be culled.
“From the level of exposure that we have seen to date I would expect more detections, hopefully only in wild birds, but it is certainly possible that the presence of this virus in wild birds will create an opportunity for exposure in domestic poultry,” Stone told Reuters in an interview.
It would be “no surprise at all” to see new detections in wild birds in North America, Stone said, adding that he hoped the biosecurity framework set up by the U.S. industry and the government would reduce the risk of large-scale outbreaks. “At this stage, we have to take history as our best indicator of what may well play out over the next few months,” Stone said.
Switzerland, Poland, the Netherlands, Denmark and Croatia have also reported outbreaks of the H5N8 avian influenza in recent weeks, in addition to outbreaks in Germany, Hungary, Austria and Israel. Denmark and the Netherlands have ordered farmers to keep poultry indoors and Germany is considering whether to do the same. Switzerland said it plans to extend to the entire country precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus. France has been spared thus far but has called for poultry farmers to increase controls and biosecurity measures.
