About 400,000 poultry culled because of bird flu in Hungary

In just a few weeks, some 400,000 chickens, ducks, geese, etc. had to be slaughtered because of bird flu (avian influenza), Hungarian veterinarian Miklos Suth told a Sunday audience on public television channel M1.

Suth, a former chief veterinarian, said that the illness would have a major economic impact, since the only way to prevent the spread of the disease is to cull the infected or possibly infected livestock.

Suth added that the virus strain currently sweeping Europe (H5N8) is the same strain as the one that caused the 2014 bird flu outbreak.

Earlier, the Hungarian national chief veterinarian ordered that all poultry in the southeastern counties of Bekes, Bacs-Kiskun and Csongrad must be kept indoors to prevent contact with migrating birds. Endit