The Spanish Society of Ornithology, SEO/BirdLife, believes that the origin of the avian flu epidemic detected in Getafe after the death of hundreds of storks in different parts of the Community of Madrid indicates “new infections coming from sick birds that have gone unnoticed by human observation” and not from passing birds arriving on the peninsula carrying the virus. This was stated in a press release from this organization after analyzes from the Central Veterinary Laboratory certified this Thursday that the episode in Getafe responds to a highly pathogenic strain, in an epidemic that is already experiencing epidemics in Boadilla del Monte, Arganda and Rivas-Vaciamadrid.
SEO/BirdLife emphasizes that the analyzes carried out by this laboratory, dependent on the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, confirmed that the dead storks were infected by an epidemic of highly pathogenic avian flu, which “significantly modifies the initial approach to the causes of mortality”.
Although the Department of Environment, Agriculture and Interior of the Community of Madrid has reported in recent hours that a large number of these birds came from northern Europe during their migration to warmer areas, which would explain the presence of the virus in the region, SEO/BirdLife refutes this information. In this sense, they assure that, in the case of storks, “they have been in our latitudes for several months, so there is no indication that they are carriers of the virus”, and they therefore believe “that it is more likely that these are new infections coming from sick birds which have gone unnoticed by human observation”.
“We must remember that most migratory species have already arrived in Spain several weeks ago and that Madrid has a large nesting population of storks, many of which remain in the region throughout the year,” SEO/BirdLife added. In addition, they recall that it has been more than six weeks since any case of avian flu has been recorded on farms and that, among wild birds, there was an important episode, with more than 40 storks testing positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 subtype of avian flu, in the gravel pits of Albarreal, in the province of Toledo.
“Since then, there has been only a trickle of a few specimens of seabirds, notably seagulls, in Galicia or the Basque Country, and a small outbreak of cranes in La Rioja,” they add, insisting that the Getafe episode “represents a significant quantitative change, due to the large number of birds affected in a single hit.” For this reason, SEO/BirdLife considers “it is essential to clarify in detail what happened in Manzanares and to understand the scope of this avian flu outbreak”, because “highly pathogenic strains are precisely those that can cause mass mortalities, as has been confirmed in this case”.
“It is also important to find out what went wrong so that the first diagnosis gave as the cause a low pathogenic subtype of avian flu, which would not have caused mortality,” they reiterated, inviting the Community of Madrid to provide more detailed information on this episode. They also request that this information “include not only the species and specimens involved and the results of the analyzes carried out, both by the Madrid administration itself and by the Central Veterinary Laboratory, but also the procedure followed for the removal and management of the corpses, an essential aspect for the proper management of this crisis”.
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