Europe battered by record number of bird flu outbreaks

Europe endured its most devastating outbreaks of bird flu this year, according to newly published data.

A report by the European Food Safety Authority, or EFSA, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the European Union said that between October 2021 and September 2022, around 2,500 separate outbreaks were detected on farms in 37 European countries, which led to 50 million birds being killed, in addition to preventive culls to stop further spreading of the disease.

Failure to bring the outbreak under control in the summer meant that two seasonal waves merged, and in autumn this year, the virulence of the outbreak saw the number of farms infected rise by 35 percent.

The problem may have been made worse by more than 600 detections among wild birds, in particular swans and ducks, that may have spread the virus further.

The figures bear out fears expressed in October by Guilhem de Seze, head of the EFSA's risk assessment production department, when discussing the summer outbreak.

"With cases detected in poultry and wild birds up to September, the current epidemic is clearly still ongoing," he said.

"As autumn migration begins and the number of wild birds wintering in Europe increases, they are likely at higher risk of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) infection than previous years due to the observed persistence of the virus in Europe."

Earlier this month, The Guardian quoted figures from the World Organisation for Animal Health, saying the disease and related culls had seen 140 million poultry killed worldwide since October 2021, with the United Kingdom's Chief Veterinary Officer Christine Middlemiss warning that case numbers were likely to rise.

By definition, culling is only a limited answer to the problem.

"If an industry can only remain by culling millions of animals, it is not sustainable," Arjan Stegeman, a veterinary professor at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, told the paper.

Vaccination programs are now being considered. And Roxane Feller, secretary-general of AnimalhealthEurope, the body that represents animal medicine manufacturers, told Politico news site that the latest outbreak — the third since 40 million birds were lost in 2018 — was raising fears of "an imminent animal welfare tragedy on an unparalleled scale".

Although the changing nature of virus variants, similar to those seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, meant vaccination was not a "silver bullet", she said when combined with improved biosecurity and surveillance, it would be easier to control.