#Efsa #Check #carcasses #monthly #presence #bird #flu #bird #flu #vaccination #Pluimveeweb.nl
Check carcasses monthly for the presence of bird flu after poultry has been vaccinated against the virus. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) advises this after the original plan – to carry out weekly checks – met with much criticism.
After vaccination of poultry against bird flu, there is a risk of infection with highly pathogenic bird flu. If the vaccination is insufficiently effective, this virus can multiply while this is not noticeable in the animals. They do not show any symptoms due to the vaccination.
This means that there is still a risk of the bird flu virus spreading to other poultry, other animals or to humans. It is therefore mandatory to monitor vaccinated poultry for the possible presence of an avian flu virus.
The initial requirements that the European Union imposed on this monitoring were high and considered unworkable. For example, a weekly examination of the deceased animals was made mandatory. The second requirement was a monthly clinical inspection and blood samples taken by a veterinarian from each flock that has been vaccinated. There are too few veterinarians available for this and it would entail high costs.
Fifteen animals per stable
Based on the criticism, new advice was requested from Efsa experts. The new advice from the animal health and animal welfare panel is to collect a maximum of fifteen animals per stable per month that have died in the past 48 hours and to examine those animals for bird flu using PRC tests.
If this is combined with passive monitoring for bird flu in both vaccinated and unvaccinated poultry, this provides 99 percent certainty that there is no subcutaneous infection of bird flu. aldus of Efsa.
