In Ontario, the poultry marketing boards have a co-ordinated system to deal with these threats and to promptly respond should there be an outbreak.
In Europe the outbreaks are prompting mass culls, biosecurity enhancements and new alerts in at least five nations, according to several local media reports and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
Poland — the European Union’s largest poultry producer — confirmed several outbreaks of the highly pathogenic H1N1 strain of avian influenza at poultry farms, affecting a total of 650,000 birds. The outbreaks included four turkey farms and a chicken farm in several parts of the country, the OIE reported this week.
England’s farm ministry confirmed an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu at a facility housing turkeys and chicken near Alcester, Warwickshire; as a result an undisclosed number of birds were culled this week, according to ITV News.
The outbreak followed the establishment of an Avian Influenza Prevention Zone that requires farms and non-commercial bird owners to boost their biosecurity measures.
Control zones have been set up in several areas and United Kingdom officials are warning poultry owners and processors in England, Scotland and Wales to launch measures to help protect their flocks.
France has issued a high alert across the entire country in an effort to stem a resurgence in avian influenza outbreaks as various forms of the virus spread through other EU members. Three cases had been confirmed in northeast France, but the nation has not reported any confirmed bird flu outbreaks since early September, the OIE said.
Officials in the Netherlands have culled 230,000 chickens, ducks and other poultry in the last two weeks after the first outbreaks of the H5 strain of avian influenza were reported at a farm in Zeewolde.
Poultry farmers are under orders to keep their birds indoors in an effort to stem the spread of the virus, the first time such orders were implemented since October 2020, the report added.
Meanwhile, the U.S. poultry industry “has the most robust avian influenza monitoring and surveillance programs in the world and we will continue to monitor the situation in Europe,” said Tom Super from the National Chicken Council.
