Over the past month, Italy has officially registered 62 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks in poultry. At each location, the presence of the H5N1 HPAI virus serotype has been confirmed.
According to notifications to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the total number of birds affected by these outbreaks at more than 2.75 million (as of November 15).
So far, the outbreaks have been concentrated in Verona province in the Veneto region, which is in the northeast of the country. However, cases have also been discovered in the province of Padua in the same region, in Lombardy, and in a backyard flock in Rome.
Within Italy, Verona is a center for turkey production, and it is commercial flocks of these birds that are currently bearing the brunt of the outbreaks. In addition, the disease has been confirmed in quails, laying hens, broiler chickens, and ducks.
On November 16, Italian health authority and research organization for animal health and food safety, IZSVe, reported a further three HPAI outbreaks, bringing the total number in the country so far this winter to 65. All these latest outbreaks were in commercial meat turkeys in the province of Verona. At each of these location, presence of an H5 HPAI virus has been detected but the full serotype is yet to be identified.
First cases in poultry in Germany, Hungary, Norway
Over the past week, first cases of HPAI have been registered with the OIE in poultry flocks in Hungary, Norway, and the German state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. The same H5N1 serotype has been detected at each affected premises.
In Hungary, two outbreaks have occurred in the central-southern county of Bacs-Kiskun. According to the OIE notification, these involved commercial premises. One had 620 geese for foie-gras production, while the other had more than 38,000 breeding ducks. These were the first HPAI outbreaks in the country since April of this year.
Norway has recorded its first cases of HPAI in a poultry flock, reports the state’s government. Testing positive for the virus was a flock of 7,000 laying hens in the southwestern county of Rogaland. Elevated mortality was observed in the flock.
According to the agriculture minister, this is a very serious situation for the country’s poultry industry.
In northeastern Germany, the state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania has registered two outbreaks of HPAI so far this month. Both of the affected flocks were backyard flocks totaling 162 birds.
With the country’s first HPAI cases of the season in the neighboring state of Brandenburg at the end of October, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania is the second German state to record cases of the disease this winter.
Overview of the AI situation in Europe’s poultry flocks
So far this winter, the H5N1 serotype has been identified at all poultry outbreak locations on the continent.
Since the start of November, six states have registered new outbreaks in their respective poultry sectors.
As of November 13, a total of 1,246 HPAI outbreaks in poultry had been reported by 20 European states so far this year. This is according to the latest update of the Animal Disease Information System of the European Commission (EC).
This is a jump of 27 since the previous update from the EC one week earlier. Accounting for these additional outbreaks were Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, and Poland.
For comparison, a total of 442 outbreaks of HPAI in poultry were registered through the EC system in 2020. In that year, cases were reported by 16 states, and Hungary was the worst affected (273 outbreaks).
Over the past week, the Netherlands has confirmed to the OIE two new HPAI outbreaks. Affected were commercial flocks of meat ducks in Flevoland, and laying hens in Groningen. These bring to six the number of outbreaks in poultry in the country so far this winter. Directly affected have been more that 219,000 birds.
In addition, presence of an H5 avian flu virus has been confirmed at a broiler farm in the province of Friesland. According to the Dutch agriculture ministry, there were more than 122,000 chickens at the premises. It is likely that the H5N1 HPAI virus will be identified there.
In the United Kingdom (U.K.), the number of confirmed avian flu outbreaks linked to the H5N1 virus serotype in poultry in England currently stands at seven. These include two outbreaks identified over the past week at commercial premises in Lancashire and North Yorkshire, reports the agriculture department, Defra.
Also impacted have been an animal sanctuary in Essex, and unspecified premises in Lancashire and South Derbyshire. For the last of these, the pathogenicity of the virus is yet to be reported.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s veterinary authority has declared the avian flu situation resolved in the southern region of Mykolaiv. An H5 HPAI virus was detected in a backyard flock in mid-October, but no cases have been found since that time.
Overview of HPAI in European wild birds
So far this year, 30 countries in Europe have registered a total of 1,790 HPAI outbreaks in wild birds with the EC (as of November 13). This is an increase of 78 since over seven days.
For comparison, a total of 756 outbreaks in 13 of the region’s states were registered with the EC over the whole of 2020.
So far in November, 12 states have confirmed one or more cases of HPAI in wild birds through this notification system.
Bosnia-Herzegovina has reported the country’s first virus-positive cases of this winter. Also reporting new cases have been the Czech Republic. Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, the Irish Republic, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden.
To the OIE, first cases of the winter have also been registered in Belgium, France, and Romania, while the U.K. has reported further cases in wild birds.
In all of these cases, the H5N1 serotype of the HPAI virus has been identified. In the Netherlands, however, one wild bird has tested positive for the H5N8 variant for the first time this winter.
View our continuing coverage of the global avian influenza situation.
