site.btaBird Flu Outbreak Registered in Southern Bulgaria

ESD 16:22:01 17-02-2020
MY1619ES.112
112 ECONOMY - BIRD FLU - OUTBREAK

Bird Flu Outbreak
Registered
in Southern Bulgaria


Sofia, February 17 (BTA) - The Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BFSA) has registered on Monday the first avian influenza outbreak this year in Bulgaria. The National Reference Laboratory has confirmed an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N8 influenza virus on a poultry farm in the southern town of Rakovski, Plovdiv Region.

A total of 5,830 ducks are being raised on the farm. All affected and exposed birds will be culled in a humane manner under official supervision.

The disease is not transmitted to humans and the bird meat and products from the farm do not pose any danger to human health.

A 3 km protection perimeter and a 10 km observation zone have been set up around the farm. A total of 25 poultry farms (136,669 ducks) fall within the 3 km zone, while there are 24 farms with 167,349 ducks and 127,550 chickens in the 10 km zone. Official control is exercised over the trade and transportation of domestic, wild and other birds, eggs, poultry and related products. Bird fairs, markets and exhibitions are banned, as well as the relocation of birds for the purpose of renewing wild populations. The last bird flu outbreak in Bulgaria was registered last April, BFSA recalled.

Poultry farms across the country have been subjected to increased control since 2018 as part of the cooperation within the sector in response to the avian influenza crisis in recent years.

The BFSA has ordered on January 23 a heightened state of epizootic readiness across all regions in Bulgaria in response to the avian influenza. Raising all species of domestic birds out in the open has been banned, meetings with poultry farmers have been held, and an information campaign is being carried out targeting poultry farmers, bird owners, hunters, veterinarians, etc., to ensure compliance with biosecurity measures and the immediate notification of a veterinarian or the mayor in case of health problems or increased mortality among birds.

A total of 31 outbreaks of the H5N8 influenza subtype have been registered across poultry and personal farms in Europe since the end of 2019. The outbreaks were in Poland (20), Slovakia (3), Hungary (4), Romania (2), Czechia (1) and Ukraine (1), BFSA said. LN/MY