Europe is enduring the most devastating bird flu season in its history, with some 50 million birds slaughtered on affected farms, European health authorities say.
Between October 2021 and September 2022, around 2,500 outbreaks of bird flu were detected on farms in 37 European countries.
The figures a from a report published Tuesday by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and the European Union Reference Laboratory.
The toll did not include preventive culls of chickens, ducks and turkeys that were carried out alongside the outbreaks, the EFSA told the French press agency, AFP.
Highly contagious
While the risk of infection to humans is low, avian flu is a highly contagious disease that can affect all species of bird.
The EFSA said that "for the first time" there had been no marked separation between two epidemic waves, as the virus was not brought under control in the summer.
This autumn, the epidemic was more virulent than last year at the same time, with the number of infected farms 35 percent higher.
The virus has also been detected more than 600 times in wild birds, notably ducks and swans, which the report said may have contributed to the spread of the virus between farms.
Health authorities are studying the possibility of using vaccinations to stem the spread of the virus.
(with AFP)
