Authorities in the Czech Republic have ordered the killing of 750,000 hens -15 percent of the country’s total- at a large chicken farm in the village of Brod nad Tichou. Europe is struggling to contain its worst outbreak of bird flu ever.
The farm, which is one of the country’s largest, is just one of around twelve Czech farms that have been affected by the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu strain in recent weeks.
The state veterinary administration (SVS) has already registered four new outbreaks in 2023, and egg prices are expected to rise due to the killing.
Last month, Czech farmers were ordered to keep chickens indoors to stop the spread of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu strain.
The current outbreak is part of a larger problem in Europe, with governments killing millions of birds: between October 2021 and September 2022, around 2,500 outbreaks were detected on farms in 37 European countries, resulting in the slaughter and destruction of 50 million chickens, ducks, and other birds.
