The EU Center for Disease Prevention and Control is closely monitoring the bird flu situation in Finland.
Sara Rigatelli,
Pirjo Auvinen
The EU Center for Disease Prevention and Control ECDC closely monitors the bird flu situation in Finland in cooperation with the Finnish authorities and the World Health Organization WHO.
According to ECDC’s assessment, the risk of the virus for the entire population is low, but slightly higher for people who come into contact with sick fur animals and their slaughter. They must be protected and watched carefully.
– This way we guarantee that we recognize the first case in a person, any human case, and we are also able to prevent the spread between people as quickly as possible, says ECDC’s chief expert on respiratory viruses Cornelia Adhloch Up in Stockholm.
Was it a surprise that the virus was able to spread in Finnish fur farms?
– Well, we had an epidemic in a mink farm last year in Spain and we knew that seagulls are the species most affected by the disease, so this was not really a surprise. This could be expected if the protective measures in the shelters are not sufficient and if the birds get inside the shelters. We also knew that minks and foxes are susceptible to influenza viruses, commented Adlhoch.
New viruses can come from Siberia
Bird flu has been circulating in bird populations for three years in the shadow of the corona pandemic and has spread to more and more different mammals in the past couple of years.
Nowhere else has the virus spread in fur farms as badly as in Finland. Particularly dangerous for humans is the mink, whose upper airways resemble human airways. In Mink, human and bird flu viruses could, with bad luck, mix.
The virus can acquire new characteristics when it moves with migratory birds to new areas, soon from Finland and elsewhere in the north towards Central and Southern Europe and Africa.
– Perhaps the eastern migration of birds from Siberia to Central Europe may also include new viruses, which may also change the epidemiological situation, Adlhoch points out.
He warns that the virus can still spread to new animal species, so all farm animal breeders should be alert now.
– This virus does what viruses do. It adapts and changes quickly. It must be stopped in time.
He hopes that wild birds would at some point become immune to bird flu.
There are also dead birds around the EU infectious disease agency in Stockholm.
– Sick seagulls even come here to the city center, as we have seen all over Europe. People take Sunday walks with their dogs on the shores of lakes where there are mass bird deaths.
Dead birds or other animals lying in parks or on beaches must not be touched under any circumstances, says Adlhoch. They must be reported to the authorities, who must retrieve the birds protected.