Bird Flu Latest Updates: Apart from India, the bird flu, which is also known as avian influenza, has been reported in least 10 European countries in the last one week. The EU countries which are badly affected the avian influenza include Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Croatia, and Ukraine.
According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), these EU countries are taking drastic steps to prevent further spread of the virus at this coronavirus pandemic.
Apart from EU, the bird flu cases have also been reported in South Korea and Japan, where this has been the worst bird flu outbreak on record which has reached over 20 per cent of its 47 prefectures.
France: In an effort o control the avian influenza, France plans to cull around 6,00,000 poultry birds. France is among European countries to have reported highly contagious strains of bird flu late last year. So far, France has slaughtered around 200,000 poultry and plans to cull a further 400,000 birds.
Germany: This country is also planning to slaughter about 62,000 turkeys and ducks. Type H5N8 bird flu was confirmed in two farms in the Cloppenburg region in the northern state of Lower Saxony. A series of outbreaks of bird flu have been reported in Europe in past weeks.
South Korea: After reporting first highly pathogenic H5N8 strain of bird flu in wild birds in October, South Korea’s agriculture ministry has issued a temporary nationwide standstill order for poultry farms and related transport in a bid to contain a wider spread of bird flu. The movement control order has been put in place for 48 hours for all poultry farms and livestock production facilities.
Japan: Japan has called for disinfections of poultry farms across the country to contain an outbreak. Infections have been detected in six regional prefectures since last month in Japan’s worst outbreak in more than four years.