The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has warned that bird flu is spreading ‘rapidly’ across Europe. What impact will this have on European poultry processors and consumers?
The European Commission has suspended imports of poultry meat from the Ukraine following the confirmation of an outbreak of avian influenza earlier this month.
An incident of low pathogenic avian flu of the H5 strain has been confirmed at a commercial chicken farm in England, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
Farmers and food producers need to stay up-to-date on current legislation after UK government restrictions to tackle an outbreak of bird flu were extended to protect the food chain, says AmiVet Exports.
Europe’s struggle with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HAPI) has seen the disease breach Belgium, a country free from bird flu outbreaks for seven years.
Vigilance on avian influenza has been urged by the World Health Organization (WHO) which said just because there are no human cases in European countries so far does not mean it cannot happen.
Avian flu virus poses a ‘very low’ risk to humans but given its evolving nature there is the potential of infection, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
Iraq’s inability to tackle the cause of bird flu means the deadly virus is likely to spread across neighbouring countries, according to an expert on animal diseases.
Veterinary officials in Iraq have killed hundreds of thousands of chickens after a deadly strain of avian influenza was detected in the country for the first time in a decade.
The first US finding of avian influenza in a commercial poultry flock this year was reported by the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) on Saturday, January 24.
Anxiety about the detection of avian influenza (AI) in Washington state has prompted nearly two dozen countries to ban imports of poultry from the Pacific Northwest this week.
The Scientific Task Force on Avian Influenza and Wild Birds has warned that focusing attention on the possible role of wild birds in the spread of H5N8 could misdirect critical resources away from effective disease control.
The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have warned that avian influenza’s “rapid spread” through Europe threatens the poultry sectors in low-resourced countries, and have urged...
Ukraine has banned imports of poultry from the UK, the Netherlands and Germany, due to outbreaks of the avian influenza H5N8 strain, according to the country’s State Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service (Gosvetphitosluzba).
Belarus has temporarily restricted the import of poultry from South Korea and Spain because of recent outbreaks of avian influenza reported in these countries, the Ministry of Agriculture of Belarus has announced.
Belarus has banned poultry imports from the Netherlands due to reports of avian influenza (H7N7), implementing the same restrictions on the country as those in Russia and Kazakhstan.
Russian veterinary services have warned that avian flu, which is currently spreading through south-east Asia, has been found on a large poultry farm in eastern Russia.
The UK turkey producer at the centre of an avian influenza outbreak
earlier this year is to be compensated nearly £600,000 (€885,000)
despite receiving criticism in an official report published
yesterday.
The UK poultry processor at the centre of the avian influenza
outbreak earlier this year will not face criminal prosecution, the
national food regulator has confirmed.
Bernard Matthews yesterday laid off 120 workers at its turkey plant
in the UK, with the possiblity that another 500 could go if the
bird flu scare continues to damage sales.
Bernard Matthews, which is at the centre of a storm over an
outbreak of avian influenza at its turkey production site in the
UK, has been given the go ahead to release a batch of poultry
products held over the possibility they contained...
The Food Standards Agency is investigating whether poultry from a
Bernard Matthews' production
site infected with the avian influenza virus entered the UK food
chain and is being sold in stores.
With six countries placing import bans on UK poultry due to the
outbreak of avian influenza, one of the country's largest
processors is fighting a rearguard action to retain its markets.
Poultry processors across Europe are bracing themselves for another
downturn in consumption after the discovery of the deadly form of
bird flu in a domestic flock of turkeys in the UK.
With confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission of the avian
influenza virus, scientists are now warning that mass vaccination
of domestic poultry may hinder detection of the deadly H5N1 strain
of the disease.
A single test for about 600 deadly viruses speeds up the process of
spotting a food-related disease outbreak -- such as bird flu -- in
hours rather than days.
Measures to prevent avian influenza in poultry flocks could be
compromised by lax management, poor international coordination, and
a lack of funds, according to researchers.
The UK regulator responsible for testing for bird flu defended its
methods today after scientific experts raised the possibility that
they may be flawed.
Highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza has infected poultry at a
farm in Germany, while the UK has announced the discovery of the
disease in a wild swan.
A report on avian influenza from the EU's food safety watchdog
could help to calm consumer fears about eating poultry and eggs,
even though the regulator's scientists have also sounded a note of
caution.
Avian influenza was found in a wild bird in Denmark this week,
making it the eleventh EU member to report a suspected or confirmed
case of the Asian strain of the H5N1 virus in the bloc.
