‘Largest-ever outbreak’ of bird flu with ‘phenomenal levels’ across UK
There are 40 infected premises across Britain amid warnings that wild birds migrating from mainland Europe during the winter are likely carrying the disease.
Half a million birds have been culled as the country remains only a few weeks into a three-month migratory season.
It comes after an Avian Influenza Prevention Zone was declared across the UK on November 3.
This was extended on November 29 with the requirement that all captive birds be kept indoors.
The UK’s chief veterinary officer, who is leading the response, warned cases are at a ‘phenomenal level’ on Thursday.
Bird flu only infects humans in extremely rare cases, but the situation has ‘huge human, animal and trade implications’, Christine Middlemiss said.
She told the BBC: ‘We can’t wait until another year and have an even bigger outbreak.
‘So, we will be working not just with our own scientists but internationally, to understand more of what we can do about what’s behind it.’
Cautioning the migratory season will last until March, she added: ‘We are going to need to keep up these levels of heightened biosecurity for all that time.’
Immediate research is needed to stop a worse outbreak in future years, Ms Middlemiss added.
Minister George Eustice told the House of Commons today: ‘Each year the UK faces a seasonal risk in incursion of avian influenza associated with migratory wild birds.
‘While we have that each year, I have to say this year we are now seeing the largest-ever outbreak in the UK of avian influenza with 36 confirmed cases.’
The protection zone means keepers must continue taking precautions including regular cleaning and disinfecting clothing, equipment and vehicles and limiting access to non-essential workers and visitors.
Defra has said the new housing measures will be kept under regular review.
Courtesy of metro.co.uk
9.8 MILLION birds killed due to bird flu in Japan
Animal health authorities in Japan have culled a record 9.87 million birds, mostly chickens and ducks, to stop the spread of highly pathogenic bird flu.
Japan has been contending with outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu since November 2020. Recent reporting in the Japan Times and JiJi Press says that the outbreak spread to 18 prefectures, including Chiba and Ibaraki, the country’s main poultry producing areas.
As of Saturday 8 May, veterinary authorities culled around 9.87 million birds as part of biosecurity measures to prevent the spread of the virus. This number is a dramatic increase from the previous record cull of 1.83 million birds in the 2010-2011 outbreak.
The Jiji Press reports that the widespread culls are behind the recent spike in egg prices.
Poultry farmers and backyard keepers are being encouraged to adopt stringent biosecurity measures to prevent further outbreaks of bird flu.
Courtesy of thepoultrysite.com
90,000 birds killed due to bird flu in Ludhiana, Punjab, India
The National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases, Bhopal, has confirmed avian influenza in samples of birds sent from a poultry farm at Kila Raipur, prompting the administration to order culling of 90,000 birds.
The samples were collected on Wednesday after owner of Suba Singh poultry farm informed the administration about the mysterious death of 1,500 birds.
As the report confirming presence of bird flu arrived on Friday evening, deputy commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma declared the area within a kilometre of the epicentre as infected zone and 1-10km as surveillance zone.
Ordering culling of 90,000 birds at the farm, he also constituted a nine-member committee to oversee the process and ensure that no bird, unprocessed poultry meat, eggs, feed or any other material was taken out from the poultry farm.
The committee headed by Khanna additional deputy commissioner Sakatar Singh Bal took stock of the situation at the farm on Saturday.
Bal said 20 teams of the animal husbandry department will start the culling operation in two shifts from Sunday. With a target of 4,000-6,000 birds a day, the process should be completed in around three weeks, he added.
Courtesy of hindustantimes.com
Hundreds of dead sea birds wash up along the coast of Groningen, Netherlands
Along the Groningen Wadden coast, many dead birds have washed ashore lately. According to the Groningen Landscape Foundation, the animals are victims of bird flu.
“In the autumn we also had a period with bird flu, but then it was not nearly as bad as it is now. It’s really about hundreds of dead specimens now,” Silvan Puijman of Het Groninger Landschap told RTV Noord.
As manager of the Wadden coast, Puijman sees the dead birds lying by bushes. “Especially barnacle geese and black-headed gulls. At the hiking trails we remove the dead birds, but in the inaccessible nature reserves we leave them. In this way we hope to prevent the spread of the virus.”
The virus spreads through the excrement of the birds. “If you get goose manure under your shoes, you spread the avian flu virus.” The virus is transmissible to humans and can cause mild flu symptoms.
Courtesy of nos.nl
Hundreds of birds dying, ‘dropping dead out of sky’ in Eastern Cape, South Africa
Hundreds of Eastern Cape birds have mysteriously died due to Avian Paramyxovirus. The SPCA, Buffalo City metro and leading animal experts reported that dozens of birds had dropped dead from the sky. Bird keepers have been advised to implement biosecurity measures and vaccination for their birds.
Courtesy of news24.com
Hundreds of dead birds found on beaches in Norway
Images of hundreds of dead woodcocks in Norway’s North Sea are a sad reminder that cold and snowy storms have dire consequences for our wildlife. As reported last February through the social networks The Woodcok Network – a bird banding project located in the United Kingdom and commanded by experts Miguel Minondo and Jaannus Aua-, there has been a massive death of woodcocks in the area from Satabvanger, in Norway , due to the low temperatures they have had to cope with due to the cold wave that hits northern Europe.
‘Many birds may have already crossed the North Sea to avoid starvation. This fact occurs on some occasions, the last about 10 years ago, and although it is distressing, it does not seem to have a long-term impact on the total population of woodcocks ”, both experts say about this fact that they qualify as“ punctual ”.
Courtesy of revistajaraysedal.es
Dozens of dead dolphins and birds found on the coast of Krasnodar, Russia
Photo Illustration
Dead dolphins and birds were found on the coast of the village of Dzhubga (Krasnodar Territory). Tik-Tok video uploaded by user Costa Klimoff (constantine1986).
“I don’t know what is being thrown into the water here, this is Dzhubga, but there are a lot of dead birds, dolphins. I don’t know what it’s connected with. Moreover, the birds are all of the same species, ”the man commented on what he saw.
February on social networks residents of Vityazevo and Gelendzhik. The Anapa authorities associate this with the cold, noting that the locals and guests of the resorts help, feed the swans, ducks, crested grebes every day, but they cannot save everyone. The head of the press service of the Gelendzhik administration, Yanina Skorikova, told RBC that this is an annual phenomenon. “We took a comment from veterinarians. This is an annual phenomenon, at this time the animals are just weakened. In addition, this year the weather was cold for the south, this also played a role – there was little food, ”Skorikova said. The head of the veterinary department of Gelendzhik, Orest Pilavov, confirmed that “there has not been such a winter for a long time, the bird simply could not stand it all.”
URA.RU sent an official request to the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Krasnodar Territory. No response was received at the time of publication.
The fact that abnormal cold weather will come to the south of Russia, noted “ Constantinople “, Scientific Director of the Hydrometeorological Center of the Russian Federation Roman Vilfand said in December 2020. Also, according to meteorologists, the snowy harsh winter this year will affect the onset of spring , in the central regions of the country in March and early April the temperature is expected to be below normal.
Courtesy of ura.news
Bird Flu outbreak in poultry on 30 farms from seven states in Nigeria
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reports an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 in poultry on 30 farms from seven states in Nigeria.
The affected states include Kano, Plateau, Bauchi, Gombe, Nasarawa, Kaduna and the Niger States.
In addition the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) reports:
As of 28 March 2021, 83 human nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal samples have been collected from contacts of confirmed birds in four states: Kano (27), Bauchi (19), Gombe (19), and Plateau (18). All contacts were farmers, farmworkers, bird-handlers, and traders, and all were asymptomatic. Of the 83 collected samples, 64 samples were analyzed using real-time RT-PCR (rRT-PCR). From the 64 analyzed samples, seven were positive for influenza A virus, including six samples of influenza A(H5) neuraminidase (NA) remains undetermined) and one sample of unsubtypable influenza A virus. These seven confirmed samples have been reported in Kano (four) and Plateau (three) states and have been shipped to the WHO Collaborating Centre in the US for further characterization.
Courtesy of outbreaknewstoday.com
Hundreds of dead birds found on beaches in Novorossiysk, Russia
Residents of Novorossiysk sound the alarm: all the beaches of the city are strewn with carcasses of dead birds. The Novorossiys have never seen such a number of bird corpses on the shore.
The townspeople have removed the new embankment of the city, strewn with dead birds.
On February 28, residents of the Vostochny District cleaned up the rubbish on the Volochaevsky beach. Activists report that they found about 200 carcasses on the shore.
The residents of Novorossiysk noticed that an oily film, very similar to oil products, was stretched across the sea in Shirokaya Balka. And on the shore – the same picture – dead birds.
A terrible sight can be observed throughout the city – on the Sudzhuk Spit, in the water area of the Tsemesskaya Bay next to the cruiser “Mikhail Kutuzov”, in Dyurso, in Myskhako. It is noteworthy that all these beaches are buried in garbage – plastic, household waste.
Local residents are concerned about the massive death of birds. The situation was commented on by the head of the commission for the protection and study of natural ecosystems in the North-West Caucasus of the Novorossiysk branch of the Russian Geographical Society Anton Popovich.
Courtesy of ngnovoros.ru
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