LONDON (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Recent statistics show the number of bird flu cases in continental Europe and the UK this summer has been “unprecedented,” and 47.5 million birds have been killed since autumn, last year.Â
From places as far north as Svalbard islands of Norway to southern Portugal, poultry producers have together disclosed nearly 2,500 outbreaks since last year.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control of EU’s latest reports show that thousands of outbreaks have also been detected in wild birds. The virus killed a significant portion of seabird nesting colonies along the northern Atlantic coast.
In previous years, avian flu outbreaks decreased when the weather warmed up and the autumnal and wintertime migration of wild birds came to an end.
However, outbreaks have persisted throughout the UK and other parts of Europe this summer, raising concerns that highly pathogenic avian flu subtypes are now endemic in wild birds, posing a year-round risk of infection.
The outbreak numbers in domesticated birds from June to September was over five times higher than it was during the same time last year. According to experts, the virus is still present since it has spread to all kinds of species of birds.
Additionally, outbreaks have swept across the Atlantic Ocean, travelling along migration paths from Europe to North America and causing the culling of millions of birds in the US and Canada.
Experts of disease say breakouts could worsen this winter.
The head of risk assessment at the European Food Safety Authority, Guilhem de Seze said that “as autumn migration starts and the number of wild birds wintering in Europe increases, they are likely at higher risk of HPAI [highly pathogenic avian influenza] infection than previous years due to the observed persistence of the virus in Europe.”
Free-range chickens might need to be kept indoors in the UK and Europe all due to infections persisting all year.
Veterinary experiments to test bird flu vaccines have begun in the Netherlands and France. However, questions still remain about the efficiency of vaccinations against avian flu and if the vaccinated birds could still spread the disease in case they are infected.
The European Commission has stated that it wants to permit the labelling of eggs produced in the EU as “free range” even when the birds are kept indoors.
