The current bird flu epidemic, registered in around 37 countries, including Portugal, is being classified as Europe’s largest. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control says there have been 2,467 outbreaks in poultry farms and aviaries, requiring the culling of no less than 48 MILLION birds. According to the agency outbreaks stretch from the Svalbard islands in the Arctic (belonging to Norway), all the way south to Portugal and east to Ukraine. It is a “geographical extension” that has never before been witnessed. The only ‘good news’ appears to be that fears of a ‘leap’ of these infections to humans are low, and this far the virus has barely registered within the wild bird population. The Guardian adds that the spread of this virus “could force free range chickens to be housed indoors (…) The European Commission has said it wants to allow eggs produced in the EU to be labelled as “free range” even if birds are kept inside.
