Avian influenza

Today, the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BFSA) has registered the first outbreak of avian influenza in Bulgaria for 2020. The National Reference Laboratory has confirmed the highly pathogenic Influenza H5N8 at a duck breeding farm in Rakovski near Plovdiv. At the moment of the outbreak registration, 5,830 mulards of four age groups are being raised on the farm, said the BFSA press office.

A new bird flu outbreak was confirmed in a poultry commercial farm on the same Seini platform of the northern Maramures County where on 14 January 2020 was diagnosed the first avian influenza outbreak in Romania, the National Authority of Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety (ANSVSA) announced.

Over 18,000 birds have been affected by the avian flu at a farm in the town of Sieni, Maramures county (northern Romania), the diseased birds to be sacrificed.

The more radical and adequate measures are taken against the spread of African swine fever, the shorter the period to combat this infection will be. This was stated by Prof. Hristo Naidenski, Director of the Institute of Microbiology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

The Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BFSA) has registered a new outbreak of avian influenza (H5) in a duck farm in the village of Yoglav, Lovech region. The case was confirmed yesterday by the National Reference Laboratory. BFSA has ordered humane killing and disinfection and has set up protection and observation areas around the village.

One million domestic birds have been affected by avian influenza in 2018, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Rumen Porodzanov told the Parliament in response to a question from MPs, Focus News Agency reports.

The Bulgarian Food Safety Agency said it has set additional measures to prevent and eradicate bird flu after the confirmed outbreaks, reports Focus News Agency. 

Until mid-November, 26 outbreaks of the H5N8 virus were confirmed in the regions of Dobrich, Plovdiv, Haskovo, Stara Zagora and Yambol. The total number of birds in all affected farms is over 1 million.

Poultry-farmers will protest today. The reason is the extreme, according to them, measures against bird flu.

Today talks with the authorities are scheduled, but before them farmers will go out to a peaceful protest.

The Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BFSA) said it has implemented a programme for enhanced observation of poultry farms in connection with the latest cases of bird flu. The measures include biosecurity in farms, more frequent laboratory control and prevention across the country. Birds could be transported only after laboratory tests, reports Focus News Agency. 

 There is no danger to consumers in relation to the bird flu outbreaks, Dr. Georgi Chobanov of Bulgaria's food safety agency told the Bulgarian National Television, referring to the two bird flu outbreaks found in the region of Haskovo, where more than 100,000 birds had to be culled, reports Focus News Agency.