A severe outbreak of bird flu gripping Germany continues to spread across the country, with commercial poultry farms in 10 of the country’s 16 several states now affected, according to official figures on Friday.
A total of 48 farms have reported outbreaks of avian influenza since early September, said the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI), which is responsible for monitoring animal health.
The latest figures show that bird flu has been confirmed at another three farms since Thursday.
All livestock at the affected farms has been culled to prevent the virus from spreading further, with more than 525,000 animals killed so far.
An FLI spokesman urged caution, saying cases could rise further due to the dynamic nature of the outbreak.
Avian influenza is an infectious disease that is often fatal to many species of birds.
The state of Lower Saxony has recorded the most cases so far, with confirmed infections in 17 poultry farms. This is followed by the eastern states of Brandenburg with eight farms affected and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern with six.
The highly contagious H5N1 variant has been officially confirmed in 248 carcasses of wild birds, though the number of animals that have died from it is far higher, the FLI said.
In Brandenburg alone, several thousand cranes have died from the disease. The state surrounds the capital, Berlin.
In a bid to protect livestock, the states of Saarland and Hamburg ordered a statewide ban on free-range poultry farming, with the aim of preventing bird flu from spreading to breeding, fattening and domestic poultry stocks.
Other states have since introduced their own bans on free-range poultry farming, though often limited to certain regions.
Source: dpa
Source: ghanabusinessnews.com
