Since August 2024, avian influenza infections have been on the increase in Europe, particularly in Eastern Europe, Germany and Italy. This heightened risk has led to the introduction of measures such as poultry quarantine, which involves confining animals not carrying the virus, compulsory virological testing prior to any movement, and restrictions on the hunting of decoy birds.
Against this backdrop, on 1st October 2024 , the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published an update on wild bird abundance and movement models for the avian influenza early warning system in the European Union. In particular, this report presents the integration of 12 new wild bird species into the models, as well as changes made to refine forecasts of wild bird distribution and movements.
Also, on 21st October, the European Commission published an implementing decision on outbreaks of highly pathogenic Avian influenza (HPAI) in certain Member States of the European Union.
Following the notification by national authorities to the European Commission of outbreaks of the disease in their countries, the following regions are placed under protection and surveillance zones:
- In the regions of Emilia-Romagna Lombardy in Italy,
- In the counties of Békés and Csongrad-Csanad in Hungary,
- In the federal state of Upper Austria in Austria and
- in the Lower Silesia voivodship in Poland.