While the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) situation appears to have eased in both domestic and wild birds across Europe lately, new outbreaks have been confirmed in poultry in the Faroe Islands, Poland, and Scotland.
Since the start of 2023, there have been 386 outbreaks of HPAI in commercial poultry in 21 European Union (EU) member states and neighboring countries. This is according to the Animal Disease Information System by the European Commission (EC; dated October 6).
This source includes two areas that are not generally considered to belong to the continent of Europe. As a result, these totals include two outbreaks in Turkey (Tűrkiye) as well as one in the French overseas territory of Reunion, which is located in the western Indian Ocean.
Since the EC’s previous update on September 22, the only change has been the addition of one outbreak in Denmark.
Of the EC’s total, the country with the most outbreaks — 152 — continues to be France. Next comes Hungary, with 79 outbreaks for the year to date.
For comparison, 24 nations registered a total of 2,321 outbreaks in poultry through this system during 2022.
In recent days, the Polish animal health agency has officially registered one new outbreak linked to the H5N1 serotype of the HPAI virus on a commercial farm. According to the official notification to the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), affected were around 16,000 birds in the central province of Lodz. Source of the infection, which killed 1,450 of the birds described as general-purpose hens, is not known. It was Poland’s first HPAI outbreak in poultry for three months.
Among captive birds, 15 European countries have together registered a total of 90 outbreaks of HPAI in captive birds through the EC’s system (to October 6). This category covers backyard poultry, zoos and similar premises.
Recording the most outbreaks in this category has been France (with a total of 30), followed by Germany (29), and Belgium (11). Each of the other 10 nations in the regions has registered between and four outbreaks.
Over the past 10 days, the H5N1 HPAI virus has been detected in one small poultry flock in each of the Faroe Islands and Scotland, according to separate WOAH notifications.
Following heavy losses from the disease in the European poultry sector in recent years, the food safety agency EFSA has recently published the results of its latest review into HPAI vaccination.
Outbreaks in European wild species creep up
Over the period September 22 to October 6, seven European states notified the EC about one or more cases of HPAI in their respective wild bird populations.
Up to the latter date, a total of 3,298 outbreaks had been registered in 27 states of the EU member and adjacent states, according to the EC System. This was an increase of just six since the previous update dated September 22.
For comparison, 3,245 outbreaks were confirmed in 33 of the region’s nations during 2022.
Germany continues to be the state with the most outbreaks (1,060 for the year to date), followed by France (403), and the Netherlands (375). Of these nations, only Germany registered one new case with the EC since the previous report update dated September 22, along with Finland, Iceland, and Norway.
Over the previous 10 days, the veterinary authorities of Serbia and the United Kingdom confirmed six and eight new cases in wild birds, respectively, to WOAH. In both of these states, the H5N1 serotype was detected.
In Norway, two more birds tested positive for the H5N5 virus variant, according to the latest notification.
4 new outbreaks on Finnish fur farms
Since Finland’s first H5N1 HPAI cases in animals other than birds were reported at the end of June, the number of outbreaks has risen to 33.
While two of these involved animals in the wild, the rest have affected fur farms in the west of the country in Ostrobothnia.
As a result of serological testing, a total of 10 new cases were identified in American mink, Arctic foxes and red foxes at four premises up to October 2, according to the latest WOAH notification.
View our continuing coverage of the global avian influenza situation.
