Bird flu spreading through Central Europe
July 26th, 2007
A highly pathogenic form of bird flu is again spreading through Europe. Most recently, Germany and the Czech Republic have reported outbreaks of H5N1, despite the European Union intensifying its efforts to prevent the reappearance of the virus among poultry. Some specialists are claiming that the latest outbreaks are a sign that the disease is in the process of mutating and becoming endemic on the continent.
The Czech Republic is dealing with a spread of the virus among broilers, as 60 birds were found to be infected in a farm in Norin. Another outbreak was discovered at a turkey farm in the same area. 6,000 birds had to be culled to halt the spread of the disease.
Germany has also confirmed that the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus strain was detected in 6 wild birds found dead near Nuremberg and later on reported the discovery of 3 wild swans in the east of the country, which carried the same disease. Germany’s previous virus detection dated from August 2006, when a zoo in Dresden was confirmed as a bird flu carrier.