OIE: New cases of highly contagious bird flu strain expected in US, Europe
Europe and North America, especially the US, are advised to prepare for a severe and highly contagious new strain of bird flu as more outbreaks are expected to occur in the next few weeks during the southward migration of the wild birds believed to transmit the virus, according to Matthew Stone, Deputy Director General of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
Eight European countries and Israel have found cases of the highly contagious H5N8 strain of bird flu in the past few weeks and some ordered that poultry flocks be kept indoors to avoid the disease spreading.
Most outbreaks involved wild birds but Germany, Hungary and Austria also reported cases in domestic duck and turkey farms where all poultry had to be culled.
In an interview, Stone said he is expecting more detections of the disease based on the level of exposure that they have seen lately, hoping it would only be seen in wild birds. Although it is still certainly possible the presence of the virus in wild birds will create an opportunity for exposure in domestic poultry, he added.
Wild birds can carry the virus without showing symptoms of it and transmit it to poultry through their feathers or feces.
The H5N8 virus has never been detected in humans but led to the culling of millions of farm birds in Asia and Europe in 2014.
In the US, the bird flu crisis last year sent egg prices to all-time highs because of the losses. Dozens of countries imposed total or partial bans on US poultry and egg imports. The bird flu outbreak in the US last year led to the death of about 50 million poultry.
Bird flu cannot be transmitted through food. The main risk is of a virus mutating into a form that is transmitted to and between humans, potentially creating a pandemic.
Germany, Hungary, Austria and Israel as well as Switzerland, Poland, the Netherlands, Denmark and Croatia have all reported outbreaks of the highly pathogenic H5N8 avian influenza, more commonly called bird flu, in recent weeks.
Denmark and the Netherlands have ordered farmers to keep poultry indoors and Germany is considering doing the same to protect the poultry from wild birds.
Switzerland said it plans to extend to the entire country precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus.
France, which saw its foie gras industry devastated by other strains of the virus earlier this year, has been spared by H5N8 so far but called poultry farmers to increase controls and biosecurity measures.
Since an outbreak of the H5N1 crisis in 2003 when the virus passed on to humans, killing hundreds in Asia and Egypt, the OIE’s 180 member countries are bound to report all new occurrences of the disease to the Paris-based organization.
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