The State Veterinary Administration (SVS) has banned outdoor poultry farming throughout the Czech Republic as of Wednesday, due to the growing number of outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza.

The ban, which is an order for poultry breeders, except for runners and pigeons, to confine their birds indoors or limit their contact with wild birds as much as possible. The same measure was announced in November. The SVS confirmed that six new outbreaks of bird flu have been confirmed since the beginning of December, five in small poultry farms and one in a large breeding farm for fattening ducks, where 15 000 ducks were culled on December 5. The outbreaks were found in Central Bohemia and South Bohemia region, where the highly pathogenic variant of the H5N1 subtype, which can be potentially transmissible to humans, was identified.

The SVS warned that the risk of introducing the disease into farms always increases significantly during the migration of wild birds and that such new outbreaks are increasing across Europe.

Article by Prague Forum