Germany, Holland, England Avian flu in Euro

Germany, Holland, England: bird flu in Europe

17/11/2014

After the dangerous bird influenza virus H5N8 was recently detected in Germany, bird flu cases from the Netherlands and England have now been reported. Whether the island is also the virus subtype remained unclear at first. This can be transferred from animals to humans.

Low risk to public health
In the north of England bird flu broke out in a duck breeding farm. The British Department of Health, Food and Agriculture announced on Sunday, according to press agency announcements, that the Yorkshire farm had been sealed off and the killing of animals had begun. As a spokeswoman said, give it one „confirmed case of bird flu“. However, the risk to public health is „very low“ and there is no danger for the food chain as well. At first, it was not clear which virus strain it was.

Transmitted by animals and humans
Previously, authorities in the Netherlands had also reported a bird flu outbreak in a poultry farm. As the Ministry of Economy announced on Sunday, all 150,000 chickens of a farm near Amsterdam were slaughtered. In addition, as a precautionary measure, the authorities ordered a ban on transporting eggs, poultry and by-products such as poultry fertilizer nationwide for 72 hours. It remained unclear how the virus could reach the farm. Again „Focus“ reported, said the State Secretary Sharon Dijksma that it is the dangerous bird flu subtype H5N8, which had recently been discovered in Germany. The pathogen can be transmitted from animals to humans.

Bird flu in Germany
The virus subtype H5N8, which previously only occurred in Asia, was discovered in early November in a fattening turkey farm in the district of Vorpommern-Greifswald. As a result, all 31,000 animals were killed. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned in September about the new bird flu variant H5N6, which is highly contagious. In Germany, a highly infectious H5 pathogen was last reported in 2008. Especially H7N9 and also H5N1 have proven to be particularly dangerous in the past years. In people who became infected, typical bird flu symptoms often did not appear until weeks later. These are initially similar to those of conventional flu and usually include high fever, cough, sore throat and sometimes respiratory distress. Less common are diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. (Ad)