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Oldenburg (dpa / lni) - Despite many security measures on the poultry farms, especially in the district of Cloppenburg, many turkey farms have been affected by the outbreak of avian influenza in recent days.
It is still too early to take stock of the damage currently occurring, said the President of the Central Association of the German Poultry Industry and Chairman of the Lower Saxony Poultry Industry, Friedrich-Otto Ripke.
He does not believe that the companies are neglecting safety measures, because then they also risk cuts in damages from the animal disease fund.
That could be a threat to the very existence of the company, stressed Ripke.
“We learned a lot from 2017,” he said.
The last major avian influenza outbreak occurred in Lower Saxony in 2016/17, also at that time mainly in the districts of Oldenburg and Cloppenburg.
The economic damage at that time was immense for the farmers.
The animal disease fund alone recorded damage of up to 17 million euros at the time.
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As was the case back then, farms that do not keep turkeys also suffer.
For example, a Dutch slaughterhouse refuses to accept healthy broilers from the observation areas.
The export of hatching eggs from parent roosters to Russia and the Netherlands is also no longer possible, although this is still possible under EU law, said Ripke.
Ripke emphasized that the industry had learned a lot from the avian influenza outbreak four years ago.
The farms protect their storage straw from contact with wild birds, for example store it in the barn instead of bringing it in from outside.
Numerous other safety measures are also intended to prevent faeces from wild animals from entering the stables.
However, turkey stalls could not be hermetically sealed, and the longitudinal walls would have to be perforated for reasons of animal health so that outside air could get in.
In part, however, the windward side is already covered with a film.
The current virus appears to be very aggressive, Ripke said.
"It's bad.
We have never had that before, when we found 12,000 wild animals dead on the Schleswig-Holstein coast. "
Also in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania or on the Halligen there have never been so many outbreaks.
Many wild animals, such as mallards, carry the virus on without becoming ill themselves.
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A highly contagious avian influenza virus has been on the road in Europe since autumn.
The H5N8 pathogen was initially found in wild animals on the coasts.
Outbreaks of the disease began shortly before Christmas in turkey farms in the districts of Oldenburg and Cloppenburg.
A duck fattening operation was also affected.
The animals must be killed, and restricted and observation zones are set up around the outbreak farms.
Avian influenza information Lower Saxony