(MENAFN) Germany has eliminated more than 400,000 poultry in response to a rapidly expanding outbreak of bird flu, according to official reports issued Sunday.

Experts from the national animal health institute noted that the current spread mirrors the devastating outbreak seen in 2021, which marked one of the country’s most severe years for avian influenza.

Reports indicated that infections have been identified on around 30 farms, prompting authorities to destroy large numbers of chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys in an effort to contain the virus.

“It is impossible to predict how the situation will develop,” the institute warned.

The most significant impacts have been recorded in the northeastern regions of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Brandenburg. Officials in Brandenburg’s Märkisch-Oderland district revealed plans to slaughter an additional 130,000 birds after already culling roughly 150,000 earlier in the year.

In addition to domestic poultry, mass deaths among cranes have been observed in the Linumer Teichland area in northwestern Brandenburg.

During the 2020–2021 winter season, Germany faced a similar crisis, when more than two million poultry had to be culled to contain previous outbreaks of avian flu.

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