#14,614
While it is hard to break away from the biggest story of the day - the ongoing unidentified pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan, China - there is actually some avian flu news worth reporting, On Wednesday, in Poland: HPAI H5N8 Outbreak Reported On Turkey Farm(s), we saw the first confirmed outbreak of HPAI H5N8 in the region since the spring of 2017.
Avian flu has been greatly subdued in Northern Europe for the past 3 years, and HPAI H5N8 has only rarely been reported over the past couple of years.Today, local media sources are reporting as many as 5, widely scattered outbreaks of avian flu (some H5N8, some yet to be identified) this week across Poland. While details are scant at this time, typical of today's media reporting, we have this (translated) report from LIDOVKY.CZ
JANUARY 3, 2020 12:48
Poland reports other cases of avian influenza in different places
WARSAW Poland reported two more cases of avian influenza in different parts of the country. Informed local authorities on Friday. Poland is the largest poultry producer in the European Union and the disease has already appeared on five farms this week, Reuters reported.
Polish authorities have reported the occurrence of avian influenza in turkeys on three farms in Lublin Voivodeship in recent days. Today they reported that the disease was also detected at a farm about half a kilometer away, where about 13,000 seed beads were affected.
The occurrence of avian influenza has been confirmed on Friday information by the veterinary inspection on a farm in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. The PAP reported that around 65 000 chickens were affected in this case.
Veterinarian Pawel Piotrowski warned of a high risk of spreading the disease in the Lublin Voivodeship. Local authorities reported this week that the detected virus is a subtype of the highly pathogenic H5N8 virus, which may even endanger humans.
While a cousin of viruses (H5N1, H5N6) that have caused human infections in the past, H5N8 has never been linked to human illness. That could change, as the virus continues to mutate.
For now, the big concern is this virus has a proven history of being easily spread by migratory birds, and that means that other countries outside of Poland need to be vigilant and poultry interests need to maintain enhanced biosecurity over the winter (see UK: DEFRA Urges Bird Keepers To Prepare For WInter Avian Flu Threat).
A reminder that even after a 3-year lull, you can never count avian flu out of the running.
