The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has ordered all outdoor poultry farms in Spain to close from July this year to prevent and control the spread of avian influenza. The new decision extends poultry lockdown measures to the entire country, affecting around 1,200 Spanish municipalities in areas considered to be at special risk and need monitoring since last month to avoid contact with infected migratory birds.
The ministry said this was in defense of precautionary measures given the increased risk of the spread of the highly contagious bird flu disease. In an order published in the State Gazette in July this year and effective today, the government has established the closure of poultry farms that use any of the existing methods of rearing outdoors, including environmentally friendly farms, poultry farms for home consumption, or poultry farms that produce eggs and meat for sale directly to end consumers.
In this way, free-range breeding and rearing of poultry and other wild birds is prohibited, even if authorities are unable to permit free-ranging birds under a set of conditions. If it is not possible to confine a farm, authorities may permit the installation of roof screens or other devices to prevent wild bird access, and may permit bird feeding at any time on the premises or in a shelter that prevents wild bird access or contact with poultry food or water.
In addition, it is prohibited to keep ducks and geese with other types of poultry. Water your poultry from a tank that wild birds have access to, unless the water is treated. So is the presence of wild and captive birds at animal concentration centers such as livestock events, exhibitions, and cultural festivals. However, competent authorities in local communities and autonomous cities may permit such concentrations if the birds come from their own city or region and a risk assessment with a favorable outcome has been carried out.
These measures, adopted in a precautionary manner, must also be applied without prejudice to other measures approved in the communities and cities of Ceuta and Melilla from November 10 onwards, within the framework of the Ministry’s declaration on situations of high epidemiological risk.
According to the ministry, by the end of the year, 14 cases of avian influenza had been reported in poultry, five in domestic birds, and 68 in wild birds, all of which belonged to the H5N1 subtype. Additionally, over the past four weeks there has been a “significant” increase in the number of cases reported in poultry and wild birds in central and northern European countries, due to the arrival of large numbers of migratory birds in Spain with the onset of winter. The ministry introduced poultry farming as a preventive measure, believing there was a “clear risk” of infection from wild birds to farms where breeding takes place in the open.
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