According to the report issued by European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) recently, between 2022 June to August, the highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses detected from EU countries have reached an unprecedented high level, which seriously affected the reproduction of sea bird in Atlantic Coast. It also reported that the quantity of infected poultry in farms are 5 times that of the same period in last year. About 1.9 million poultry in farm are culled during June to September.

  ECDC said that the serious avian influenza may imposes adverse economical impact on poultry industrial, which also may threat the public health because the mutating virus can inflect people. However, the inflecting risk is low compared with the people who closely contact with poultry, such as farm worker. The ECDC cautioned that influenza viruses in animal species can sporadically infect humans, and have the potential for causing severe public health impacts, as occurred in the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.

  So ECDC warned that we can not take this issue down, because the inflecting quantity and inflecting area are expanding, which have outbreak the record. According to the newest data issued by ECDC and EFSA, up to now, there are 2467 poultry outbreaks, 48 million poultry are culled in the farm, 187 cases of inflection of poultry in captivity and 3573 cases of inflection of wild animals. The distribution area is also unprecedented, which spreads from Svalbard Islands (located in the Norwegian Arctic region) to southern Portugal and eastern Ukraine, affecting about 37 countries.

  ECDC Director Andrea Amon said in a statement: ” It is crucial that clinicians in the animal and human fields, laboratory experts and health experts collaborate together and maintain a coordinated approach.”

  Amon stressed the need to maintain surveillance to detect influenza virus infections “as quickly as possible” and to conduct risk assessment and public health initiatives.

  ECDC also highlights the importance of safety and hygiene measures in work that cannot avoid contact with animals.