Data shows bird flu will spread faster in EU than in 2023

Bird flu has spread faster across the European Union this season than in the milder 2023, raising fears of a repeat of previous crises that killed tens of millions of poultry and renewing fears it could spread to humans.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly called avian influenza, has killed hundreds of millions of birds around the world in recent years.

However, it has not been found in humans or cattle in the EU, unlike in the US, where the virus has spread to almost 400 dairy herds in 14 states this year and has been detected in 36 people since April.

Four of them worked on a commercial egg farm infected with the virus.

Its spread to humans and other mammal species, including dairy cattle and pigs in the United States, has raised concerns that the virus could mutate into a virus that is easily transmitted between people and spark a pandemic.

From the start of the migration season on August 1 to the end of last week, EU countries reported a total of 62 outbreaks of bird flu on poultry farms, mostly in the bloc’s east, according to the World Organization for Animal Health.

This compares with the seven outbreaks of bird flu reported on EU farms at the same stage in 2023, but is still well below the 112 outbreaks reported by the end of October 2022.

“The situation at EU level is certainly more alarming than at the same stage last year,” said Yann Nedelec, director of the French interprofessional poultry group Anvol.

Avian influenza is a seasonal disease of poultry, transmitted primarily through the feces of infected wild birds and through the transport of infected material. It usually appears in the fall in migratory birds and decreases in the spring.

As with last season, Hungary has recorded the highest number of outbreaks since the season began on August 1, with the number growing rapidly in recent weeks, data shows.

In Poland, the EU’s largest poultry producer, the virus has led to the destruction of 1.8 million birds, of which almost 1.4 million were on just one farm in the town of Sroda Wielkopolska.

France, which suffered the worst losses in the 2022/23 season but was largely spared last season, stepped up biosecurity measures around poultry farms in mid-October, citing a rise in bird flu cases in several neighboring countries.

“However, we hope that the vaccination we have carried out in France will save us from any crisis this year,” Nedelec said.