Avian influenza is an extremely infectious viral illness which takes place mainly in poultry and white water birds. There are 2 pressures of the infection; high or low pathogenic infections, called HPAI and LPAI, respectively.
This previous year has actually seen Europe struck with the worst wave of bird influenza on record. The latest quarterly report from the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) reports an unmatched variety of break outs in between October 2021 and September 2022 throughout 37 European nations, culminating in 50 million birds chosen in impacted facilities.
The guidelines for vaccination, revealed on Monday (20 February), permit a harmonisation of making use of vaccination in efforts to avoid or manage the spread of the illness.
This will enable “safe movements of animals and products from establishments and zones where vaccination has taken place”, according to a Commission declaration.
In light of the most severe break out in current history in the EU, Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said that the battle versus bird influenza is at the “top of our priorities”.
“These outbreaks are causing enormous damage to this agricultural sector and hamper trade,” she kept in mind in a declaration.
For AVEC, which represents Europe’s poultry meat sector, the relocation towards a typical EU frame for vaccination is a welcome one. They explain that, thinking about the advancement of the infection over the previous couple of years, it will be “more and more difficult to control HPAI without vaccination”.
However, the association alerted that vaccination is “not the solution that will solve the avian influenza problem once and for all”.
“It can be part of a strategy – but many other measures must be taken as well,” AVEC secretary basic Birthe Steenberg informed EURACTIV.
For example, rigorous security programs to supervise the efficiency of vaccination techniques should be put in location, however these will be “costly” for the sector.
As such, these “must be seen as measures needed for the society as a whole – so the cost will not only go to the poultry producers”, Steenberg said, including there is likewise a requirement to take a look at trade with in order to prevent trade barriers as an outcome of vaccination versus the illness.
Meanwhile, for Roxane Feller, secretary general of AnimalhealthEurope, which represents makers of animal medications, vaccines and other animal health items in Europe, a “multi-stakeholder evaluation of the possibilities for using vaccines during certain seasons to ensure better protection of poultry at risk from HPAI outbreaks is clearly needed”.
“The animal health industry is ready to contribute to vaccination campaigns if and when the need arises, provided that authorities and governments provide clear guidance with timelines that are compatible with vaccine development and manufacturing,” she included.
The brand-new guidelines, which remain in line with the worldwide requirements of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, previously OIE), will now participate in force on 12 March.
[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]
