“We are currently experiencing the worst bird flu epidemic ever in Germany and Europe,” said a statement from the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI), Germany’s federal research institute for animal health, to the news agency DPA.
New cases are being detected daily, and it is not just wild birds that are infected, according to the institute.
– There is no end in sight. The affected countries range from Finland to the Faroe Islands to Ireland, from Russia to Portugal, the researchers say. Cases have also been identified in Israel, Canada, India and East Asia, among others.
In Germany, 394 cases of wild birds such as ducks, geese, swans and gulls were detected between the beginning of October and 29 December, mostly along the coast. FLI also registered 46 cases in German chicken farms.
During the same period, 675 cases were detected in wild birds and 534 cases in domestic animals in the rest of Europe. The disease was also detected in mammals this year, for example among foxes in the Netherlands and Finland, seals in Sweden and Germany and among otters in Finland.
(©NTB)
– .
