Avian flu confirmed at leading Bulgarian egg farm

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has been reported at a farm operated by a top egg producer in Bulgaria, with other outbreaks confirmed in Bangladesh, Russia, and Taiwan.

Photo by Andrea Gantz
Photo by Andrea Gantz

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has been reported at a farm operated by a top egg producer in Bulgaria, with other outbreaks confirmed in Bangladesh, Russia, and Taiwan.

A further outbreak of HPAI linked to the H5N2 has been confirmed by Taiwan’s animal health agency to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). Latest to be affected was a flock of 5,590 meat ducks in the city of Tainan. The authorities report that the whole flock was humanely destroyed, and the usual controls have been put in place to prevent further spread of the disease.

This is the fifth HPAI outbreak in Tainan this year, according to Taiwan News, and it brings Taiwan’s total to 73 over this period. The first cases were reported in early 2015.

New cases of H5N1 HPAI among a pheasant flock in the Dhaka region bring the total number of outbreaks in Bangladesh since January of 2017 to six. Some of the birds—totaling 600—showed signs of drowsiness before they died, according to the official report from the ministry for livestock to the OIE. The most recent previous confirmed cases of the disease in poultry were in March of this year.

India’s HPAI situation appears to have been “resolved,” according to three recent reports to the OIE from the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. The announcement follows one outbreak each in which the H5N1 and H5N8 viruses were detected at poultry farms, and two occasions when the H5N1 variant was found in wild birds.

Europe: New HPAI outbreaks in Russia, Bulgaria

OIE has been informed by the Russian veterinary authority about a confirmed outbreak of H5 HPAI in the first week of June. Affected was a backyard flock of 99 birds in Kursk oblast, which is in the west of the country, and borders Ukraine.

A further five outbreaks of HPAI linked to the H5N8 virus subtype occurred in Bulgarian poultry between April 10 and May 25, according to the official report from the country’s agriculture ministry to the OIE. Almost 39,000 birds were lost to the disease through death or humane destruction at farms in the central provinces of Plovdiv and Haskovo, and in Dobrich in the north-east.

The animal health agency in Sofia has reported to the OIE that the disease situation in Bulgaria as “resolved,” following two previous outbreaks confirmed in March and April of this year.

However, last week, Focus Information Agency reported that the country’s agriculture minister, Rumen Porozhanov, discussed with the national food safety agency the measures being taken to control a new outbreak of HPAI at an egg farm in Donchevo in Dobrich province.

Local media have reported that this latest outbreak affected two poultry houses belonging to Bulgaria’s biggest egg producer, reports flu blog, Avian Flu Diary. The farm’s owner expressed the hope that destruction of the 35,000 birds in the two affected houses would stop the disease spreading to the remaining 515,000 hens.

A second wild bird in Northern Ireland has tested positive for the H5N6 HPAI virus variant this year, according to the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs. The bird was a wild goose found dead in County Armagh.

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