Europe is experiencing the "most devastating" bird flu in history

European health authorities said this Tuesday (20) that the continent is experiencing an epidemic Bird flu The most “destructive” in history, as nearly 50 million birds were sacrificed on polluted farms.

Between October 2021 and September 2022, “Europe was hit by the most devastating and highly pathogenic avian influenza pandemic,” according to a report by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Union reference laboratory.

In total, 37 European countries have been affected, and more than 2,500 outbreaks have been detected across the continent.

The health agency said losses of chickens, ducks and turkeys on affected farms are actually greater than that, as the tally of 50 million birds slaughtered does not include the preventative operations that are ultimately carried out around recorded outbreaks. France Press agency🇧🇷

The epidemic has not subsided since September, and infections have increased with the approach of winter.

The authority stated that “for the first time” there was no separation between two epidemic waves, considering that the virus did not disappear during the summer. This fall, the epidemic was more severe than at the same time last year, with 35% of farms infected.

Between September 10 and December 2, 2022, about 400 new outbreaks were reported on farms in 18 European countries, mainly in France, the United Kingdom and Hungary.

At the request of the European Commission, the FRA said it was examining the “availability of vaccines” to prevent highly pathogenic avian influenza in birds and that it was “studying potential vaccination strategies”.

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