Major bird flu outbreak declared at poultry farm in southern Spain's Andalucía region

The Junta de Andalucía's regional ministry of agriculture, fisheries, livestock and rural development has declared a major bird flu outbreak at a poultry farm in El Cerro de Andévalo (Huelva province) in southern Spain. It has since adopted measures to tackle possible contagion to other livestock farms. This suspicion has now been confirmed following analyses carried out at Spain's national reference laboratory.

The measures, taken in line with a pre-established animal health protocol, were initiated even before the official declaration of the outbreak. The objective is to stop any possible spread of the virus. For this reason, the 8,500 birds have already been slaughtered and the process of disinfecting the farm and monitoring other nearby farms has begun.

The agricultural and livestock authority highlighted that action has been taken even before the release of the results from the national laboratory. The Junta de Andalucía regional government has implemented the protocol to be followed in these cases (slaughter of birds, elimination of litter, feed and any other contaminated material), coordinating various branches and the farm, "with the aim of keeping the staff informed and trained and putting all possible measures in place to prevent the disease from spreading".

The information has also been passed on to the rest of the agricultural offices in various districts and to the eight provincial delegations of the regional ministry in order to maintain vigilance in the event of any incident.

For the moment, "the outbreak is very localised and isolated", given that the concentration of farms near the outbreak is low and many of them are empty.

An outbreak is officially declared once the laboratory analysis has been carried out and the high pathogenicity of the virus has been confirmed, with the information uploaded to an application of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mapa). It is the ministry that communicates the outbreak to the countries of the EU and third countries.

This declaration entails the restriction of the movement of poultry from poultry farms within a ten-kilometre radius, with possible exceptions. Likewise, if the outbreak is confirmed, it is necessary to cull the birds on the farm (in this case most of them were already dead due to the disease itself) and to dispose of all contaminated materials or feed in accordance with established European regulations and national contingency plans.

The regional ministry of agriculture, fisheries, water and rural development is holding various coordination meetings with other departments with shared responsibilities such as the regional ministry of health and the regional ministry of the environment and sustainability (an outbreak of bird flu has been declared in wild birds in Seville and another possible outbreak is under study in Malaga), in addition to informing livestock farmers in the area in a coordinated manner.

Highly pathogenic bird flu is caused by a virus that is transmitted via the respiratory tract, causing the death of the animal in a few hours or days. Its transmission risk to humans is very low. However, all those people who may have been in contact with the birds are kept under health surveillance.