EU authority warns: Europe is experiencing the worst bird flu epidemic of all time

Created: 04/10/2022, 14:20

By: Marc Dimitriu

Veterinarians prepare to cull ducks after bird flu broke out on a duck farm in the Czech Republic.

© David Tanecek via www.imago-images.de

Bird flu has never raged in Europe as severely as it has just now.

Transmissions to humans are possible and can be serious.

Stockholm/London –

At the moment, pandemics and epidemics seem to be more present than ever: Corona, monkeypox, the new type of tomato flu in India.

And the well-known bird flu is currently raging in Europe.

According to the EU health authority ECDC, the most recent bird flu outbreak is the worst such epidemic ever recorded in Europe.

According to a report released by the agency on Monday, nearly 2,500 outbreaks in poultry farms were identified during the 2021-2022 bird flu season.

48 million animals were killed in the holdings (killing of livestock).

More than 3,500 cases have been identified in wild birds, according to the ECDC report.

The geographical extent of the outbreak is also unique and stretches from Spitsbergen in Norway to Portugal and Ukraine.

A total of 37 European countries are affected.

Almost 190 cases have been registered in animals kept elsewhere, such as in zoos.

Avian flu in Europe: Infections in humans possible - So far no cases

According to the ECDC (European Center for Disease Prevention and Control), influenza viruses in animals can sporadically lead to infections in humans and to mild to severe illnesses.

The viruses have the potential to have a major impact on public health, as past examples have shown.

Fortunately, despite the strong spread and despite bird flu infections in mammals, there has been no known transmission to humans in the European Economic Area in recent years.

Bird flu: According to the RKI, severe symptoms and lung failure are possible

According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the first symptoms of an infection usually appear two to five, possibly up to 14 days after infection: “The clinical picture is characterized by severe flu-like symptoms such as high fever, coughing, shortness of breath and sore throat.

In more than half of the cases, there is also diarrhea, and more rarely abdominal pain and vomiting.

As the disease progresses, pneumonia usually develops, which can lead to lung failure and death.

About half of all patients with influenza A(H5N1) infection died from their disease.”

Also worldwide there were only a small number of transmissions to humans without symptoms or with mild courses.

Therefore, the risk to the population is low, albeit slightly higher for people occupationally exposed to infected birds.

To make sure that doesn't change, the EU agency pointed to the importance of testing people with respiratory illnesses of unknown origin or those who have recently been in contact with potentially infected animals.

It is of utmost importance to detect possible transmissions early.

Worst bird flu epidemic in Europe: now all year round

The head of the national reference laboratory for avian influenza at the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI) near Greifswald recently spoke of a completely new quality with regard to bird flu.

An infection on the scale of this summer is being observed for the first time, explained Timm Harder.

While the outbreaks in earlier years were mainly seasonal due to bird migration, they now occur all year round.

All of North America is also affected.

One could speak of a real pandemic in wild birds, said the expert.

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In Great Britain there are already warnings of an impending shortage of turkeys in the Christmas season because of the bird flu epidemic.

There have already been a few cases of bird flu among poultry farmers this year, James Mottershead of the National Farmers Union told Sky News on Monday.

Because of such cases in the run-up to Christmas, there could be bottlenecks.

"If you have an outbreak on your farm and the farm is classified as an infected area, that's serious." It could mean that you have to stop production for up to twelve months.

In the UK alone, more than three million birds have been killed as a result of outbreaks this year, the report says, and cases of avian flu have been identified in 155 locations.

Prevention zones have been set up in several regions of the country.

(md with dpa)