EU surveillance of bird flu in wild birds published

The European Commission and the Community Reference Laboratory (CRL) for bird flu in Weybridge have published the results of the surveillance for avian influenza in wild birds carried out in the EU over the past 10 months.

The data was presented at the FAO/OIE International Scientific Conference on Avian Influenza and Wild Birds in Rome.

Although final figures for February-May 2006 are still being collected it is estimated that around 60,000 wild birds were tested for bird flu in the EU during that period. This, combined with the 39,000 wild birds tested between July 2005-January 2006, means that almost 100,000 tests for the H5N1 virus have been carried out on wild birds over the past 10 months.

Since February 2006, more than 700 wild birds across 13 Member States (Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, France, Slovakia, Sweden, Poland, Denmark, Czech Republic and UK) have been found to be infected with the H5N1 strain. However, there has been a decline in the incidence of the disease in wild birds in Europe over the past weeks.

There have been four outbreaks of H5N1 bird flu in poultry in the EU, all of which were swiftly eradicated following detection. So far there have been no human case of the H5N1 virus in the EU.

To view the Commission and CRL presentations and the surveillance

Editor WorldPoultry