Avian influenza virus survives the summer in wild birds in many European countries. As a result, the virus continued to cause outbreaks in chickens. This is evident from the overview of Efsa, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control and the EU Reference Laboratory.
The virus usually dies out in the summer, but between 11 June and 9 September 2022, Efsa published 788 reports of highly pathogenic avian influenza in 16 European countries and the United Kingdom. 22 reports were of captive birds, of which 56 were from poultry farms and 710 were of wild birds. The virus reached seabird breeding colonies along the North Atlantic coast and caused massive deaths, particularly in the Netherlands, Germany, France and the United Kingdom.
Largely infected wild birds pose a continuing risk of infection to domestic birds. From June to September, the number of outbreaks in captive birds and poultry decreased compared to previous months, but there were five times more outbreaks compared to the same period the previous year.
“The current bird flu epidemic is clearly still ongoing,” said Guilhem de Seze, head of the risk assessment production department at Efsa. “As autumn migration begins and wild bird numbers increase over the winter in Europe, this represents a higher risk of bird flu outbreaks than in previous years.”
Avian flu worldwide
The 2021-2022 bird flu season has resulted in Europe’s largest outbreak to date, with a total of 2,467 outbreaks in chickens. 47.5 million birds have been destroyed. Additionally, 187 outbreaks in captive birds and 3,573 avian influenza outbreaks in wild birds were reported. Outbreaks have been reported from Spitsbergen in Norway to southern Portugal and Ukraine. In total, wild bird outbreaks have been reported in 37 European countries.
In the fall of 2021, bird flu spread from Europe to North America. It has caused severe infestations of poultry in several Canadian provinces and US states, as well as deaths of wild birds.
Low risk to humans
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) concludes that the risk of infection to the general human population in Europe is low. For occupationally exposed individuals, the risk is medium. ECDC considers the risk of human exposure to contaminated poultry products to be very low.
