Institute for Diagnostic and Animal Health confirms H5N8 avian influenza virus in Maramures

The Institute for Diagnostic and Animal Health has confirmed the presence of the H5N8 avian influenza virus in the samples taken from the laying hens from the farm of the Karin SRL company based in Seini, Maramure County, according to a press release of the from the National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA).

"The the Local Center for Disease Control (CLCB) in Maramures County has been immediately activated and also the Central Operational Unit led by the head of the National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA), Robert Viorel Chioveanu. The head of the ANSVSA ordered a team of specialists in avian pathology from this institution to travel to Maramures on January 14 2020, to participate in the epidemiological investigation and to monitor the application of the procedural measures," the statement said.

According to the ANSVSA, they established a protection and surveillance area around the outbreak, so that within a radius of at least 10 km severe measures of movement of persons, animals and means of transport were taken. In the protection area there are nine other commercial farms (8 birds and one of pigs), which are permanently monitored through clinical inspections and sample collection.

Together with the County Police Inspectorate and the County Inspectorate of Maramures Gendarmerie, the official veterinary sanitary services have restricted the access roads to all 9 farms.

At the same time, controls were intensified in the vicinity of the State Border Crossing Points located between Hungary and Romania, on the trade routes through which intra-Community exchanges with live birds, poultry meat and eggs of consumption and incubation between Romania and Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and other Member States with avian influenza.