Reuters — Sweden has reported an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus on a farm in the southern part of the country, the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) said on Tuesday, as the disease spreads in Europe. The Philippines, meanwhile, has banned imports of French and Belgian poultry as a virus containment measure.
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The virus killed 1,316 birds in Sweden, with the rest of the 47,938-strong flock slaughtered, the WOAH said, citing a report from the Swedish authorities.
The Philippines’ department of agriculture said, today, it has imposed an indefinite ban on imports of poultry and related products, including wild birds, from Belgium and France following a bird flu outbreak there.
“We’re doing this to protect the health of our local poultry population as well as poultry workers and consumers since H5N1 is a virus that can be transmitted to humans by infected animals,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel said in a statement.
Bird flu, which is carried by migrating wild birds and can then be transmitted between farms, has ravaged flocks around the globe in recent years, disrupting supply, pushing up food prices and raising concern of a risk of transmission to humans.
France and Belgium, which share a border, reported the bird flu outbreak in their bird populations to the World Organization for Animal Health in November and December, respectively.
On Jan. 4, seven bird flu outbreaks had been detected in France since Nov. 27, the country’s agriculture ministry said on its website, of which five on turkeys, one on laying hens and one on ducks.
The Philippines’ import ban will also prevent traders from bringing in Belgian and French poultry products including poultry meat, day-old chicks, hatching eggs, and poultry semen into the Philippines, the Department of Agriculture said.
Canada banned imports of live birds and unprocessed poultry and eggs from France in October.
In 2023, the Philippines imported 426,620 metric tons of poultry meat, 3.78 per cent higher than the previous year, with Belgium accounting for 0.59 per cent and France 0.01 per cent.
–Reporting for Reuters by Karen Lema and Sybille de La Hamaide.
