Denmark: 25,000 poultry slaughtered after a …

After millions of mink were slaughtered in Denmark to contain a coronavirus mutation, it is now the turn of the poultry, when detecting a first outbreak of avian influenza in the west of the country. On Monday, the Danish veterinary authority reported that 25,000 animals were slaughtered and the export of eggs and chickens outside the European Union (EU) has been halted.

At a chicken farm in the town of Randers, “25,000 animals were killed because they had been infected with the severe avian influenza H5N8“Foedevarestyrelse, the state veterinary agency, said in a statement.

This disease, which unlike covid-19 is not dangerous to human life, has experienced epidemics during the summer in Russia and Kazakhstan and is now spreading across Western Europe. In France, there are 46 departments where chickens are raised on their farms, while sources of contagion have also been detected in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

After identifying the infected farm, the Danish agency established a 3 km perimeter around the property where all poultry will be subject to special controls. He also announced restrictions for all animals within a 10 kilometer zone.

“It is important that (farmers) protect their poultry from wild birds with a roof and a place to confine,” John Larsen, head of veterinary services in Denmark, said in a statement.

For this epidemic, Danish egg and chicken exports cut off for three months to countries outside the European Union.

It’s about second animal epidemic Denmark has been confronted in recent weeks, after detecting a mutation of the novel coronavirus in mink, after which Danish authorities ordered the sacrifice of 17 million mink across the country.

The Danish Food Ministry last week admitted making a mistake because “there is no legal basis for requiring mink farms to slaughter their animals outside of areas” where infected mammals have been detected . However, to residents’ confusion, the agency urged farms to go ahead with this drastic measure as a “precaution”.