Bird flu spreading in Europe

German vets have culled more than 13,000 birds following the discovery of low pathogenic avian influenza on a farm in the south-east of the country.

The single case of H5N2 virus occurred on a poultry farm at Roding, near Cham in Bavaria, close to the border with the Czech Republic.

The farm had 9,500 laying hens, 2,000 ducks, 1,500 free-range geese and 100 turkeys. The source of the outbreak is currently unknown.

See also: French high-pathogenic bird flu outbreak spreads

It comes at a time when French authorities are battling to control their outbreak in the south-western part of the country. Three new highly pathogenic cases have been detected in Landes, affecting Guinea fowl and ducks, and in the Dordogne, affecting ducks, although no strain details have yet been released.

It brings the total number of French cases to six since the first outbreak in a private backyard flock in the Dordogne was discovered at the end of November.

At least eight countries have banned poultry products from France, including Japan, which is France’s biggest export market for fois gras.

The French ministry of agriculture has stressed it has taken strong measures to avoid the virus spreading, including boosting active surveillance and imposing trade restrictions on live birds and hatching eggs from the Dordogne and Landes departments.

Meanwhile, the US department of agriculture has reported a Eurasian H5 case of avian flu in genetic material from a wild, hunter-harvested mallard duck in Morrow County, Oregon, in November.

Testing was unable to determine the exact strain of the viruses or whether it was high or low pathogenic.

The discovery stemmed from the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s extensive sampling of hunter-harvested birds and wild bird mortalities. More than 40,000 wild birds between July 2015 and July 2016 are being tested for avian flu.