Illegal activities may have played a role in the spread of bird flu

(Photo: Pixabay)

Since October 2024, there has been a repeated outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in our country. A total of 188 flocks in nine counties have been affected by the disease. 88% of the outbreaks were detected by Nébih in the Southern Great Plain region, 82% of which occurred in waterfowl, the vast majority in liverfowl flocks. During the epidemic that has been ongoing since the autumn, the veterinary authority has discovered illegal activities, primarily in waterfowl flocks, that could have played a role in the spread of the epidemic. These include, for example, the failure to keep poultry indoors and the illegal keeping of commercial flocks. The authority has strictly sanctioned all such cases: in addition to exclusion from compensation, a food chain supervision fine is also being imposed. In several cases, suspicions of forgery of private documents have arisen in relation to documents and invoices submitted for the compensation procedure. The authority has filed a complaint in all such cases. It has also come to light that poultry and poultry products are being sold illegally on social media, bypassing the veterinary authority, which may even pose a risk to animal and public health.

Illegal activities affected not only the waterfowl sector, measures were also needed regarding the laying hens’ flock

The National Tax and Customs Office informed the territorially competent veterinary authority that a vehicle with a Slovak license plate, bound for Slovakia, was stopped at the axle weight measuring station on the M5 motorway, in which approximately 5 tons of unmarked, unaccompanied table eggs were transported. The authority established that the table eggs originated from a region/area of ​​our country declared a surveillance zone due to avian influenza. The official veterinarian ordered the immediate destruction of the batch, the competent district office initiated proceedings against the owner of the flock of origin, while the central authority notified the Slovak veterinary authority about the case. Nébih draws the attention of poultry farmers that illegal activities can pose a serious risk to animal and public health, and therefore entail strict sanctions. It also asks the public to buy poultry and poultry products only from reliable sources.

Nébih