Bird flu: 140 animals killed in Baden-Württemberg

According to the district office, 140 animals have to be killed in the Baden-Württemberg forest due to the outbreak of bird flu in the Karlsruhe district. The suspicion that two deceased chickens from a bird park were infected with the highly contagious animal disease has been confirmed. The authority wants to publish a general decree with guidelines for poultry farmers.

This will apply from Saturday in Forst and neighboring Hambrücken, where almost the entire bird population – around 200 animals – from a forest recreation park had already been killed because of the disease, also known as avian influenza. Poultry farmers would then have to bring chickens, turkeys, guinea fowl, partridges, pheasants, ratites, quails, ducks and geese into the barn immediately, it said. Poultry exhibitions and poultry markets would be banned.

“It is strongly recommended that all bird keepers, especially in the area of ​​the Rhine, comply with and implement appropriate biosecurity measures to protect their own populations,” explained the head of the Veterinary and Food Control Office in the Karlsruhe District Office, Joachim Thierer. The most important safety measures include avoiding contact between kept birds and wild birds and protecting feeding places and watering troughs from wild birds.

According to the information, another zoo is involved in Forst due to the spatial proximity. “Since a large number of particularly rare and protected bird species are kept in both parks, a differentiated approach between culling, separation and further examination is necessary,” said the district office. Both parks are closed.

On Wednesday, the Ortenau district also reported a confirmed infection with the H5N1 virus in a dead stork. There are repeated major outbreaks of bird flu in Baden-Württemberg. In 2022, the Karlsruhe Zoo was hit, among others, and had to close for several weeks. Thanks to an exemption, no infected animals had to be killed as a precaution – a decision that was unique in Germany and a test run for other zoos as well.

Bird flu or avian influenza is an infectious disease that occurs primarily in waterfowl and other birds. If introduced into companies, it can cause major economic damage. Experts consider the H5N1 bird flu virus to be a potential pandemic candidate. The virus has killed millions of animals in recent years, including many mammals.

People become ill again and again, most recently in the USA, where employees at poultry farms became infected. However, there has so far been no sustained human-to-human transmission.