More reports on the outbreak of Avian-Flu cases around the world this week from Russia to Africa

Update on the outbreak of more Avian-Flu outbreaks around the world this week

• Different strains of bird flu have been spreading across Europe and Asia since late last year, leading to mass culling of poultry in certain countries and some human deaths in China.
•  World Health Organization to call on all countries on Monday to monitor closely outbreaks of the deadly virus in birds and poultry and to report promptly any human cases that could signal the start of a flu pandemic.

This week reports from Russia claim 600,000 chickens were killed due to avian flu in Astrakhan, resulting in the loss of hundreds of millions eggs to the region.

France will scale back preventive slaughtering of ducks to counter bird flu after the culling of 800,000 birds this month helped slow the spread of the disease in the southwest, the country's agriculture minister said on Thursday. France resorted to a mass cull after the highly contagious H5N8 strain of bird flu started spreading among farms in the southwest, the country's main production zone for the duck and goose liver speciality foie gras.

The 800,000 birds culled preventively were in addition to about 1 million that died or were slaughtered at farms where the H5N8 virus was detected, he said.

Bird flu in East Africa, Burundi is on alert as signs of bird flu were detected in Uganda, close to the Burundi border, where fishermen reported “mass death of wild birds” on the shores of Lake Victoria, near Entebbe, which lies near the capital Kampala.

Greece reported an outbreak of the highly contagious H5N8 bird flu virus among laying hens on a farm in the southern part of the country, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Thursday, citing a report from the Greek farm ministry. The country had already reported a case of H5N8 in a swan in December but this would be the first outbreak on a farm.

Some 28,000 hens died of the virus, the report said. The H5N8 Bird flu virus has spread among European countries in recent months with more than 20 countries hit so far, according to the OIE.

Bird flu has been confirmed at a farm in Lincolnshire, England four weeks after it was found at a nearby unit. A flock of 6,000 turkeys has been diagnosed with the H5N8 strain of avian flu, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.

Some of the birds at Low Farm in Fulstow, near Louth, East Lindsey, have died. The rest are due to be culled.

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