Across Germany, around 1.5 million animals have already been culled due to the current spread of bird flu. There have now been more than 100 outbreaks in poultry farms, more than half of them in Lower Saxony, the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI) announced on Friday. According to the Lower Saxony Ministry of Agriculture, around one million animals have already had to be culled there this year alone due to the animal disease.
According to the FLI, around ten outbreaks have been recorded in each of the federal states of Brandenburg, North Rhine-Westphalia and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In Bavaria, a handful of farms are currently affected, and in Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, one each.
On Thursday, the Lower Saxony Ministry of Agriculture reported 63 officially confirmed outbreaks this year. Most cases have occurred in recent weeks, with more than 950,000 animals having to be culled since 15 October. There is also another suspected case threatening 360,000 laying hens.
Lower Saxony has by far the largest population of laying hens compared to other federal states. Agriculture Minister Miriam Staudte (Green Party) sees the high ‘poultry density’ as part of the problem: ‘The outbreaks are again concentrated in barns in poultry-intensive districts,’ she emphasised.
The highly contagious bird flu – also known as avian influenza – is mainly transmitted through direct and indirect contact with wild birds and is currently spreading rapidly in Europe. In Spain, Great Britain, France and some German states, poultry farms are therefore currently required to keep their birds indoors.
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