Spain bird flu horror as nearly 300,000 birds slaughtered

Around 270,000 birds have been killed so far in 2022 to prevent the spread of bird flu across the country of Spain. The infected birds lived on a large-scale farming facility just outside the city of Valladolid, in the Castille and Leon region.

This is the second outbreak of bird flu detected in the region in less than a month.

Industry experts have emphasised their concerns over the outbreak in Iscar, just outside of Valladolid, due to a high concentration of farms in the area.

Within 10 kilometres of the farm, there are 32 other commercial farming facilities and six private farms.

Restrictions have been imposed on all nearby facilities.

The birds are believed to have been living in cages, and on Wednesday, the Spanish Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food confirmed the outbreak at the farm.

They stressed the “virus cannot be transmitted to humans through cooked poultry meat, eggs or processed products derived from them".

The previously detected outbreak in the region was found near the city of Segovia in mid-January.

Almost 19,000 turkeys at the farm were affected last month.

Outbreaks have been detected across the country, including a number of cases in Andalusia.

The majority of European countries are contending with outbreaks of avian influenza, including France.

In mid-January, French authorities announced 2.5 million birds would be slaughtered in the southwest regions of the country to contain bird flu outbreaks.

The French farming ministry added that of this number, about 1.2 million birds had already been killed, and that 1.3 million would be culled to curb the spread of the virus.