Bird flu kills 100,000 hens at Czech farm

Czech vets are due to cull 80,000 hens at a farm where over 100,000 animals have died of bird flu since late last week, the state veterinary office said Tuesday.

The farm in Libotenice, about 45 kilometres (28 miles) north of Prague, had a total of 188,000 hens before Christmas.

“The culling of hens from halls affected by bird flu is under way,” State Veterinary Administration spokesman Petr Majer told AFP.

“The numbers show that this strain, the highly pathogenic H5N1, is very aggressive and kills hens in particular fast and on a mass scale,” he added.

He said vets would also destroy over a million eggs from the farm.

The Czech Republic has registered 48 outbreaks of bird flu this year, the highest number in a calendar year in history. The disease is currently plaguing Europe, with France reporting an outbreak in its foie gras producing Landes region last week.

A bird flu outbreak in northern Israel that killed over 5,200 cranes and forced the culling of half a million chickens is not yet under control, an expert said on Monday.

The disaster is expected to threaten Israel’s supply of eggs. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government is trying to import them from other countries.

Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg called the crisis “the most serious damage to wildlife in the history of the country.”

As Israeli media carried photos of workers in white hazmat suits collecting the crane carcasses, Uri Naveh, a senior scientist from Israel’s Parks and Nature Authority, said his staff was still struggling to control the situation.