The World Organization for Animal Health announced on Tuesday that Croatia had detected an outbreak of the highly contagious H5N5 strain of… Influenza virus Birds in a poultry farm.
The Paris-based organization said in a report, citing Croatian authorities, that the outbreak led to the infection of 5 poultry birds out of a flock of 19,600 birds on a farm in the Brodsko Posavska region, near the border with Bosnia.
Highly contagious bird flu has spread around the world in recent years, leading to the culling of poultry birds estimated at hundreds of millions.
Bird influenza is a disease that primarily affects birds, and is caused by several types of influenza viruses, and in some cases it may be transmitted to humans.
The viruses that cause bird flu include H10N3, H5N1, H7N9, and H9N2.
According to the World Health Organization, human infections occur mainly through direct contact with infected animals or contaminated environments, but this infection does not lead to effective transmission of these viruses in humans.
Controlling the disease at the animal source level
The majority of human infections with the H6N1 and H7N9 viruses have been associated with direct or indirect contact with infected live or dead poultry. Controlling the disease at the animal source level is crucial to reducing human exposure to the risk of infection.
The organization says that it is impossible to eliminate influenza viruses due to the presence of a vast silent virus reservoir in waterfowl. Zoonotic influenza infections in humans may continue to occur.
