The Czech veterinary watchdog said Wednesday that it had started culling more than 70,000 farm birds after cases of bird flu were detected at two commercial farms.
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Several countries across Europe have been battling a surge in avian influenza outbreaks, with Spain, Britain, Germany and France imposing restrictions such as confining poultry inside or ordering culls.
“The culling started this morning,” State Veterinary Administration (SVS) spokesman Petr Majer told AFP, saying that firefighters and farm employees culled the birds in containers filled with carbon dioxide.
The culling began in the southern village of Valdikov, where the disease was confirmed on Tuesday morning, with 18,000 week-old ducks and 2,500 adult ducks slated for culling.
Majer said the culling would continue Thursday at a farm in the central Czech town of Lanskroun with about 40,000 hens and 13,000 cocks.
The SVS also announced extraordinary hygiene measures within 10 kilometres (six miles) from the farms.
“We will restrict poultry movement, list all poultry at farms and ban mass events like bird exchanges or exhibitions,” it said.
So far this year the SVS has registered bird flu at three commercial farms and 17 non-commercial farms, and in wildfowl in eight places across the country.
In 2024, Czech authorities culled more than 250,000 birds as the disease spread to 10 large commercial farms and 43 smaller farms.
The bird flu outbreak, typical in autumn, has hit neighbouring Germany particularly hard.
“As of today, there have been 97 outbreaks at poultry farms, affecting around 1.5 million animals that have either died of avian influenza or been culled,” the Friedrich Loeffler Institute, which monitors animal health in Germany, told AFP.
ADIS, a Europe-wide system that tracks infectious animal diseases, recorded 139 outbreaks in European poultry farms between July 1 and November 5.