More than 60 cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) have now been confirmed in Hungarian poultry flocks in less than one month. Bulgaria, Taiwan, and Vietnam have also reported new cases.
Avian influenza in Hungary
The HPAI situation in Hungary appears to be escalating sharply.
Between the first outbreak on March 22 and the start of April, a total of 65 outbreaks of HPAI had been confirmed in the country. Based on information supplied by the agriculture ministry to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), these outbreaks involved the direct loss of almost 467,000 head of poultry. This total includes birds that had died or were culled as the result of outbreaks where the H5N8 virus variant had been detected.
Over the past week, a further 53 secondary HPAI outbreaks have been confirmed in Hungary, according to Italy’s health authority and research organization for animal health and food safety (IZSVe). All the latest cases are in the Kecskemet district of Bacs-Kiskun. Previous outbreaks have been in this county and its neighbor Csongrad, which border Romania and Serbia.
IZSVe does not detail the species or number of birds affected, beyond the fact that around 150,000 poultry have been culled in relation to the earlier 23 out of the 53 outbreaks. Control and eradication measures have been implemented for each outbreak, according to Hungary’s veterinary authorities.
Two more HPAI outbreaks confirmed in Bulgaria
Over the past week, the agriculture ministry has reported two new outbreaks of the disease in the south of the country. These bring the number of outbreaks since mid-February to eight, based on information from the Bulgarian agriculture ministry to the OIE.
Both of the latest outbreaks were on poultry farms, and started in the period March 5-12. While the type of bird is not specified, the farms had 16,800 and 39,120 poultry, respectively. Elevated mortality occurred at both premises, leading to the loss of almost 56,000 birds in total through death or culling to prevent further spread of the virus.
One of the affected farms was in Kardzhali — a first outbreak in this province — which borders Greece, although the outbreak was not near the frontier. The second location was in the neighboring county of Plovdiv, where all the previous recent outbreaks have occurred.
Total direct losses from the eight outbreaks in Bulgaria now exceed 178,600 head of poultry.
Recent research indicates that this country’s HPAI outbreaks may be due to a virus with a different origin from the one currently causing disease among poultry in other parts of Europe.
HPAI spreads to new areas of northern Vietnam
Since the first HPAI outbreak in the current series in mid-January, the disease has spread to 12 provinces in four regions of northern Vietnam.
Ten new outbreaks linked to the H5N6 virus variant have been confirmed to the OIE over the past week by the agriculture ministry.
Confirmed between February 25 and April 2, these affected village poultry flocks ranging in size from around 200 to more than 12,000 birds. The infection caused significant mortality in each flock before the infection was confirmed, and the remaining birds were destroyed. More than 23,700 birds were lost as the result of these outbreaks.
The six earlier outbreaks are described as “resolved” by the veterinary authorities. The more recent four outbreaks are regarded as “continuing.”
So far this year, HPAI H5N6 outbreaks have been confirmed are in Vietnam’s Northeastern, North Central Coast, Northwestern, and Red River Delta regions. Cases of the disease linked to the H5N1 virus variant have been reported in the south of the country.
Taiwan’s HPAI outbreak total stands at 35
Confirmation of the latest outbreak of HPAI at a farm in Tainan city brings Taiwan’s total HPAI outbreaks so far this year to 35.
Taiwan News reports that, following the death of a number of the birds, the H5N5 virus variant was detected. More than 8,600 chickens at the farm have been culled, and around 560 kilograms of eggs have also been destroyed.
Veterinary authorities are checking the health of nearby poultry.
Avian flu situation in the United States
No new cases of low-pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) of the H7N3 subtype have been detected in North Carolina or South Carolina over the past week.
According to the latest official report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture report to the OIE, disposal efforts are continuing at all 11 affected sites in North Carolina. Surveillance and epidemiological investigations relating to the earlier outbreaks are ongoing.
Earlier this week, the first U.S. outbreak of HPAI of this year was reported in a commercial turkey flock in South Carolina.
View our continuing coverage of the global avian influenza situation.
