Bird flu has spread across all of Germany, officials say

A current bird flu outbreak gripping Germany is affecting almost the entire country, officials said on Friday, as the agricultural minister called for protective measures to be ramped up.

The highly contagious subtype H5N1 of the avian influenza virus has been confirmed in dead wild birds in all of Germany’s 16 federal states expect in the city state of Bremen, according to the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI), the agency responsible for animal health.

“We are seeing a very dynamic infection pattern, not only in cranes but also in other bird species,” said a spokeswoman for the institute.

Bird flu is an infectious disease that is often fatal for bird and poultry species, although it is not considered to be dangerous to humans.

While it is not unusual for bird flu to be detected in Germany at this time of year, when many bird species migrate south to avoid the winter, an unusually high number of dead cranes found in eastern states made headlines this week.

On Thursday, conservationists said they had found more than 1,000 cranes near Berlin which were thought to have died in a large outbreak of bird flu.

The FLI spokeswoman said that Germany was yet to see the peak of bird migration this year, meaning there was a continued high risk that livestock could become infected.

Commercial poultry farmers in eight states are affected, the spokeswoman said, with 15,000 animals culled in the south-western state of Baden-Württemberg so far.

In the western town of Rees near the Dutch border, some 19,000 animals had to be killed due to the outbreak, she said.

According to estimates by the FLI, more than 200,000 chickens, geese, ducks and turkeys have been culled over the past few weeks following bird-flu outbreaks in order to contain the spread of the disease.

Germany saw its worst outbreak of bird flu to date in the autumn of 2020, when more than 2 million animals had to be culled due to the disease.

Cases rising rapidly

Agriculture Minister Alois Rainer noted that the number of bird-flu cases in the country has risen exceptionally quickly over the past two weeks.

“There are currently numerous outbreaks, both in wild birds and in poultry farms. This is not unusual for this time of year,” said Rainer.

However, “a very rapid increase in infections over the past 14 days” has underscored “how serious the situation is” as well as “the importance of joint and coordinated action,” he said.

Rainer said preventing the virus from spreading further was the “top priority,” alongside “protecting animals and averting damage to [Germany’s] agricultural and food industries.”

He said his ministry had asked the European Union to raise the limit on compensation payments for valuable animals that have to be culled from €50 ($58) to up to €110 in a bid to support farmers.

Compensation from the bloc’s animal disease fund is usually based on the animal’s market value.