Half-a-million birds killed in Germany since latest bird flu outbreak quoting : DW

Large scale outbreaksThere are usually two or three bird flu strains recorded at one time, but now there are at least a half a dozen strains active in the past months. South Korea, Japan and Taiwan are also fighting major avian flu outbreaks by culling millions of poultry. In Europe, millions of poultry have been culled and preventative confinement measures implemented in an effort to stop the virus from spreading. The Organization for Animal Health has warned the number of concurrent outbreaks in birds are "a global public health concern." The strain has cause hundreds of deaths and resulted in millions of birds being culled.




More than 23,000 chickens are to be culled at a farm in Suffolk in the UK's seventh confirmed case of bird flu this year. A number of the birds at the poultry farm in mid-Suffolk have died and those remaining will be culled, Defra said. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has put restrictions in place at the premises after lab tests detected the avian flu strain H5N8. The strain of avian flu has been found in wild and farmed birds in the UK since December 2016. A 3km (1.8 mile) protection zone and 10km (6 mile) surveillance zone have been put in place to prevent the spread of the disease.

China says bird flu spread slows, vows to stiffen controls

To fight the spread, the commission is urging stronger monitoring, besides suspending or permanently closing live poultry markets and tightening curbs on bird transport, it said. On Saturday, Beijing reported its first human H7N9 case this year, a 68-year-old man from Langfang city in the neighboring province of Hebei. The spread of the virus among fowl in China follows major outbreaks in poultry flocks in neighboring South Korea and Japan. Authorities have warned against panic and urged precautions, but nevertheless the numbers triggered concern of a repeat of previous health crises, such as the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2002. BEIJING The spread of a deadly strain of bird flu in China is slowing, health authorities said on Thursday, as they vowed to tighten controls on markets and the transport of live poultry to battle the virus.



collected by :Lucy William
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