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ARCHIVED - First case of bird flu detected in the Region of Murcia
A gray heron found in Sucina tested positive for the virus
It’s been a year and a half since the worst outbreak of bird flu in history hit Europe and now the very first case of the virus has been detected in the Region of Murcia. An infected gray heron was found last month in the municipality of Sucina and, despite being transferred to El Valle Wildlife Recovery Centre, the bird sadly died a short time later.
A year ago, several poultry farms in the Region were confined because of the prevalence of bird flu after outbreaks of the H5N1 virus were detected along the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Herons, as water birds, are a common sight in Murcia’s wetlands and reservoirs and after the Sucina specimen tested positive, samples were taken from around 30 other birds in the area, but thankfully they were all negative.
Although no major restrictions have been implemented as a result, the regional authorities have recommended that farms raising chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese take extreme precautions against the possibility of wild birds coming into contact with feed or water.
The Region of Murcia, along with the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands, are particular “risk areas”, according to expert in infectious disease, María José Cubero, since they are frequent migration routes between Europe and Africa and provide vast wetlands favoured by wild birds.
In Alicante and Murcia, a permanent surveillance network has been set up in the Mar Menor, Las Salinas de San Pedro and El Hondo.
"As soon as there is an official notification, nearby farms must be notified and a control perimeter of 20 kilometers around a wetland must be established" in order to minimize the chances of a widespread outbreak, the expert explained.
Before the case discovered in Murcia, bird flu in Spain has mostly been confined to the Cantabrian coast but the recent wintery weather is posing a new threat, since cooler temperatures can exacerbate the symptoms. And while Ms José Cubero acknowledges that "it is almost impossible" to control the spread of the virus among wild birds, these animals generally don’t linger too long in one place, so the chance of it being passed to farmed birds is low.
The epidemic caused by this bird flu has already affected 37 European countries and has forced the slaughter of more than 50 million birds on the continent. So far in Spain, seven outbreaks have been detected in poultry farms and another outbreak in a captive bird enclosure, and 99 positive cases in wild birds have been confirmed.
Image: Freepik
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