Norway, Finland battle rapid spread of bird flu
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[July 28, 2023]
By Louise Rasmussen
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Norway and Finland face record outbreaks of bird
flu this year which have killed thousands of seagulls and other species,
put livestock at risk and restricted travel in some areas, officials
said.
Avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, has circulated throughout
Europe in recent years, leading to a cull in May and June of millions of
birds on French farms alone and affecting the supply of poultry meat and
eggs.
Officials in the Arctic town of Vadso, part of Norway's Finnmark county,
said they had collected more than 10,000 dead birds in the area and the
Norwegian Food Safety Authority on Thursday imposed a travel ban
covering three nature reserves.
"The outbreaks we are seeing in various places in Finnmark this year are
much larger than we have seen in the past in Norway," said Ole-Herman
Tronerud, the chief veterinary officer at the Norwegian Food Safety
authority.
The H5N1 virus strain has spread among poultry and wild birds for years
but there have been sporadic outbreaks reported globally in mammals such
as cats, mink and otters.
Neighboring Finland also said wild birds were heavily affected and that
the H5N1 strain has now been found in 20 fur farms, up from 12 earlier
this week.
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People wearing protective suits collect
dead birds, as there is a major outbreak of bird flu, in Vadso
municipality in Finnmark in Norway, July 20,2023. Oyvind Zahl
Arntzen/NTB/via REUTERS/File Photo
"The pathogen was confirmed as a
variant circulating especially among the seagulls," Finland's
ministry of social affairs and health said in a statement on
Wednesday.
Three U.N. agencies this month warned that outbreaks globally raised
concerns that the virus might adapt to infect humans more easily,
and urged countries to strengthen disease surveillance and improve
hygiene at poultry farms.
The World Health Organization has said that the risk to humans from
H5N1 remains low, but said reports of infections in mammals needed
to be monitored closely.
(Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen; editing by Terje Solsvik and
Toby Chopra)
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