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Czechs detect bird flu as new Europe outbreak feared
PRAGUE, Jan 18, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – A highly contagious bird flu has been
confirmed at a Czech farm, officials said Saturday after a French farm union
warned of the risk of a new outbreak in Europe.
Czech official Petr Vorlicek said “the highly pathogenic H5N8 subtype
lethal for birds” was found at a small farm 150 kilometres (94 miles)
southeast of the capital Prague.
Vorlicek, spokesman for the State Veterinary Administration (SVS), said
the infection at the farm in Stepanov nad Svratkou was most likely imported
by wild water birds.
The SVS, which says the H5N8 has never been reported to have spread to
humans, said the farm bred three ducks and 12 hens, of which six infected
with the virus died within two days.
The remaining animals at the farm were culled on Saturday morning,
veterinarians said.
“We will create… a ten-kilometre (six-mile) protected area around the
farm,” SVS head Zbynek Semerad added.
The French farm union, Coordination rurale, said Friday that H5N8 has been
detected in recent weeks in farms in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania as
well as among wild birds in Poland.
It warned authorities to urgently stop shipments from the infected
countries and alert customs agents to the risk.
It recalled how French poultry farms and the producers of foie gras were
seriously affected by the 2017 epidemic when millions of birds were culled in
Europe.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1920 hrs