European health authorities said this Tuesday (20) that the continent is experiencing the “most devastating” avian flu epidemic in history in more than a year, killing about 50 million birds on contaminated farms.
Between October 2021 and September 2022, “Europe was hit by the most devastating highly pathogenic avian influenza epidemic,” according to a report by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Union reference laboratory.
A total of 37 European countries were affected, with more than 2,500 outbreaks identified across the continent.
In fact, the losses of chickens, ducks or turkeys on the affected farms are greater because the tally of 50 million birds slaughtered does not include the preventive measures eventually implemented in relation to the registered outbreaks, the health agency told AFP.
The epidemic has not abated since September, and contagions are increasing as winter approaches.
EFSA stressed that “for the first time” there was no separation between two epidemic waves as the virus did not disappear in the summer. This fall, the epidemic was more virulent than at the same time last year, with 35% more farms infected.
Between September 10 and December 2, 2022, around 400 new farm outbreaks were reported in 18 European countries, most notably in France, the United Kingdom and Hungary.
At the request of the European Commission, EFSA said it was reviewing “the availability of vaccines” to prevent highly pathogenic avian influenza in birds and “reviewing possible vaccination strategies”.
Christmas hope: Kyiv puts up Christmas tree amid Russian bombing raids