Bird flu hits near Poland's border
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
12.11.2016 13:48
Bird flu has hit just 75km from Poland's northwestern border at a poultry farm in Germany's Greifswald region, website onet.pl has reported.
Photo: Flickr.com/Richard Lee
Suspicions of bird flu were raised when 31 birds were found dead at a German poultry farm. A further 26 fowl were immediately culled as precaution, with tests later confirming the H5N8 strain of the virus had been present, onet.pl said.
The highly contagious virus has not previously affected domestic fowl in Europe, the website said.
However, according to the World Organisation for Animal Health, the disease has spread throughout Germany, Austria, Croatia and Switzerland in the past few days, killing wild birds including ducks.
Poland was Europe's top poultry meat-producing country in 2014, according to the EU's statistical office, Eurostat. (vb/pk)