Over 12,000 turkeys have been culled in Poland after an outbreak of high pathogenic avian influenza. The outbreak was reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) on 2 January by Dr Bogdan Konopka, Poland’s chief veterinary officer.
The 12,089 turkeys from a commercial flock were culled after samples were taken from five dead birds. The outbreak occurred in the Lubelskie region, in the south east of the country. It is Poland’s first outbreak of H5N8 HPAI since April 2017.
Last month, the UK suffered its first case of AI in nearly two years, when low pathogenic AI was discovered in a flock of broiler breeders in Suffolk owned by PD Hook. The 27,000 birds were culled. The last case in the UK before that was in January 2109 when H5N6 was discovered in wild birds in Dorset.