Europe races to lock down poultry as bird flu takes hold

By Sybille de La Hamaide

PARIS (Reuters) -A surge in deadly bird flu cases in Europe has prompted more countries to confine millions of poultry indoors to shield them from infected wild birds, with Ireland the latest to take action on Wednesday.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, has been concerning for the poultry industry and governments since it led to the death of hundreds of millions of birds in recent years and spread to dairy cows in the U.S., disrupting supply, fueling food prices and posing a risk of human transmission.

Ireland on Wednesday imposed a nationwide housing order for poultry to protect them from bird flu after confirming its first outbreak in three years.

'VERY, VERY WORRYING'

"The whole pattern of bird flu is changing ... The challenges around this year is that it arrived probably a month earlier than normal and in different geographical locations (in Ireland)," Nigel Sweetnam, chair of the Irish Farmers' Association National Poultry Committee, said on Radio 1. 

"It's all together very, very worrying." 

France, which had to cull over 20 million birds in 2021-22, issued a similar order last month while Britain followed suit on Tuesday. The Netherlands and Belgium had acted in October.

In total, 15 out of 27 European Union countries have recorded bird flu outbreaks on farms so far this season.

Bird flu typically peaks in autumn with migratory birds, but this season there has been an unusually high number of outbreaks, at 688 so far compared to 189 last year, raising fears for commercial flocks.

GERMANY HARDEST HIT

Germany is by far the EU country most affected by bird flu this season, recording 58 outbreaks on farms between August 1 and the end of October, out of a total of 136 for the EU plus Britain, according to data compiled by France's animal health surveillance platform. It had only eight a year earlier.

German media report that about one million poultry had to be killed because of the virus. There is no nationwide compulsory housing order but several affected states have imposed some.

Meanwhile, Poland, the EU's largest poultry producer, came second with 15 outbreaks so far. It has not required all poultry to be kept indoors.

(Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide; additional reporting by Natascha Koch in Berlin and Padraic Halpin in Dublin; editing by Mark Heinrich)