Bird flu restrictions on poultry farms could be lifted in March

Budapest, February 16 (MTI) – Poultry farms in Hungary have shown no sign of bird flu since the end of January, and if the virus does not resurface, restrictions on poultry farmers could be lifted in early March, the National Chamber of Agriculture quoted Hungary’s chief veterinarian as saying on Thursday.

Since the first outbreak of the H5N8 strain of the virus last November, bird flu has been detected at 231 poultry farms in a total of seven counties, Lajos Bognár was quoted as saying at a conference. Among them, 192 farms kept more than 500 birds each, he said. A total of 3.2 million birds have had to be culled, 80 percent of which were ducks and geese.

Earlier this month, Bognár ordered poultry farms all over Hungary to keep their flocks indoors to prevent their infection by wild birds. Bognar said the bird flu outbreak has caused about 3 billion forints (EUR 9.7m) in direct losses to Hungary’s economy.