20:34 15 January 2020
Bird flu outbreak cause unknown: minister
Veterinary services are unable to determine the origin of the avian influenza virus, deputy Agriculture Minister Szymon Giżyński said. The latest outbreak of bird flu was reported in Poland on Monday, with around 6,000 geese now set to be exterminated.
The strain of the virus was a subtype of the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu, Polish state news agency PAP reported, which can also pose a threat to human health.
Poland has been the largest poultry meat producer in the EU since 2014, according to agriculture ministry data. From January-October 2019, 1.5 million tons of livestock, meat, offal, and poultry products were exported from Poland. The main recipients of poultry from Poland were EU countries.
(PAP)
