Bird flu spreads throughout Europe, other regions

Dec. 30 (UPI) -- German health officials said Thursday that Europe is experiencing a devastating avian bird flu outbreak affecting wild birds and poultry farms as humans continue to struggle with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Friedrich Loeffler Institute, Germany's Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, said cases have been found in Canada, across Europe and into India and East Asia.

"We are currently experiencing the strongest avian flu epidemic ever in Germany and Europe," the institute told Germany's news outlet DPA. "There is no end in sight -- the countries affected range from Finland to the Faroe Islands to Ireland, from Russia to Portugal."

The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control reported on Dec. 22 that 867 cases of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus detections had been found in 27 European Union countries and Britain, which had been expanding since October.

"The observed persistence and continuous circulation of HPAI viruses in migratory and resident wild birds will continue to pose a risk for the poultry industry in Europe for the coming months," the report said. "The frequent occurrence of HPAI A(H5) incursions in commercial farms raises concern about the capacity of the applied biosecurity measures to prevent virus introduction."

In northern Israel, officials said 5,200 cranes have died of the H5N1 avian flu while hundreds of thousands of chickens had to be culled to stop it from spreading.

Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg said Sunday the H5N1 outbreak was "the most serious damage to wildlife in the history of the country," according to the Washington Post.