Avian flu continues to spread around the world

More than 40 countries have reported outbreaks in the last four months, and the OIE warns that "a further increase in the number of outbreaks is expected in the coming months."

The threat of avian influenza looms over the global poultry industry as the virus is currently present in Europe, Asia, North America and Africa. European producers have been the most affected, with a large number of outbreaks reported in the past four months in Poland, Ukraine, RUSSIA, France, Italy, the UK, the Netherlands and Germany. Moreover, an HPAI warning was raised in the Iberian Peninsula after the bird flu reached Portugal and Spain.

But the situation is deteriorating not only in Europe. According to the World Organization for Animal HEALTH, 40 countries in Europe, Asia, North America and Africa have struggled in recent months to keep the threat under control. Since early 2022, more than a million birds have been slaughtered in Israel in what officials have called "the worst bird flu outbreak in the country's history." The H5N1, H5N3, H5N4, H5N5, H5N6 and H5N8 subtypes of HPAI circulate in bird populations around the world, which is of concern to the OIE, which has called this “unprecedented genetic variability in subtypes…creating an epidemiologically complex landscape.”

Last month, OIE DIRECTOR General Monique Eloi told REUTERS that “the situation is more complex and risky this time around as we see more options popping up making them harder to track. After all, the risk is that the virus mutates or mixes with other viruses. The human influenza virus, which can be transmitted between people, is suddenly taking on new forms.”

In addition, Germany's federal research institute for animal health, the Friedrich Löffler Institute, told the German Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) that Europe is experiencing "the worst bird flu epidemic ever."

The institute added that the epidemic has "no end in sight" as the virus spreads across the continent and around the world, with new cases reported daily. The latest cases of bird flu reported this week occurred in the US, Indiana, where the virus was detected on a turkey farm with 29,000 birds. According to official figures, Indiana is the third largest turkey-producing state in the US, the first duck-producing region, and the second largest in the country for table eggs and laying hens. In total, at least 90 cases of Eurasian HPAI H5 have been reported to the USDA since January, nine of which have been confirmed as subtype H5N1. The first cases of the virus were detected in South Carolina in mid-January before the virus spread to North Carolina, Virginia and Florida in recent weeks.

CANADA has also confirmed H5N1 avian influenza in commercial poultry stock in Nova Scotia, leading to various trade restrictions by importers, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said last week.