Esslingen/Ortenau (dpa/lsw) - The outbreak of avian influenza in Baden-Württemberg is having a larger impact: the district office in Esslingen has now issued a stall obligation for the entire district. The reason for this was a seagull found in Oberesslingen with the pathogen. An infected seagull was also discovered in the Ortenau district.
The Esslingen district office announced on Friday that poultry must only be kept in closed stables for the next few weeks. The measure is initially limited to the end of March. It affects about 1700 poultry farms.
A seagull with the pathogen was also found recently in the Ortenau district. In contrast to Esslingen, in the district of Ortenau only local stabling obligations have been imposed.
In Germany, 103 cases in wild birds have been reported since the beginning of the year, 11 of them in Baden-Württemberg. The Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) still classifies the entry risk in poultry farms nationwide as high.
An infection of humans with the virus of the subtype H5N1 is not known in Germany. According to the European Center for Disease Control, this virus is poorly adapted to humans and transmission from birds to humans is therefore rare.
