Bird flu cases are spreading again in Europe. Hungary and Slovakia are the last countries to do soStrains of H5N8 reported. This is a highly pathogenic variant of the disease that has recently resurfaced in Poland. Hungarian authorities have quarantined the area of the region where they have detected bird flu cases of avian influenza. All birds in the affected enclosure were burned to prevent the infection from spreading.
New bird flu cases in Europe
Hungary is the third EU member state after Poland and Slovakia where veterinarians registered this dangerous disease in January. In Poland, the disease was detected near the country's shared border with Germany. However, the relevant authorities also recall that they consider the overall activity in Europe to be low in recent weeks, despite the recent outbreaks of influenza.
So far, Latvian ornithologists have not identified any risks to migratory birds carrying the disease into the country. They also note that due to the warm weather, some migratory birds have not left and are feeding near local waters. Authorities are currently checking every bird farm within a 10-kilometer radius for signs of the disease and taking samples if necessary.
“Six thousand geese on the farm are facing extermination, the state veterinary inspection has already taken steps,” Tomasz Stube, spokesman for the Wielkopolska region, told Reuters.
Virus strain outbreak
The virus strain is a subtype of the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu, the Polish state news agency PAP reported. This could also endanger human health. Last month's outbreak in Poland, Europe's largest poultry producer, was preceded by an outbreak in 2017. There were also bird flu cases in a large farm in northwest Hungary, the National Food Safety Authority (NEBIH) announced on Monday.
Slovakia, Hungary's neighbor in the Northern European Union, reported its first outbreak of the same highly pathogenic strain of the virus in nearly three years on Friday in backyard poultry farms in the west of the country. Hungary's NEBIH said the entire population on the farm, more than 50,000 birds, had to be slaughtered and other precautionary measures taken to curb the spread of the infection. It said the farm would receive government compensation.
The virus strain is very similar to the one in Hungary that authorities fought in an earlier outbreak in 2016. Poultry products in Hungary are safe to consume. Hungary will also introduce restrictions on transport to contain the virus, the authority said. She added that the H5N8 strain has not caused human infections in Europe so far.
