Europe suffers ‘most devastating’ bird flu in its history

For more than a year, Europe has been experiencing the “most devastating” avian flu epidemic in its history, with nearly 50 million birds sacrificed on contaminated farms. health officials said this Tuesday (20).

Between October 2021 and September 2022, “Europe has been hit by the most devastating, highly pathogenic avian flu epidemic”, according to a report by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Center for Prevention and Disease Control (ECDC) and the EU Reference Laboratory.

In total, 37 European countries were affected, with more than 2,500 outbreaks detected across the continent.

According to the Ministry of Health, losses of chickens, ducks or turkeys on affected farms are actually more than that, because the balance of the 50 million birds killed does not include preventive operations that were ultimately carried out around recorded outbreaks. AFP.

The epidemic has not subsided since September, and infections are increasing as winter approaches.

EFSA emphasized that “for the first time” there is no distinction between the two epidemic waves, given that the virus does not disappear in the summer (winter in Brazil).

This fall, the outbreak was more severe than in the same period last year, with 35% more farms infected.

Between 10 September and 2 December 2022, around 400 new outbreaks were reported on farms in 18 European countries, mainly in France, the United Kingdom and Hungary.

At the request of the European Commission, EFSA said it was “studying the availability of vaccines” and “examining possible vaccination strategies” to prevent highly pathogenic avian influenza in birds.