All hens at Brod nad Tichou farm to be culled due to bird flu outbreak

All the birds at the large chicken farm in the Plzeň region where a bird flu outbreak was confirmed on Friday will now have to be culled to contain the outbreak, the Czech News Agency reports.

Initially, it was reported that only 120,000 (around a sixth) of the laying hens would have to be culled, which then increased to 220,000 (about a third) on Monday when tests confirmed infection in the second part of the hall. But the virus has since spread to other parts of the farm, and it will thus be necessary to dispose of all of the almost 750,000 laying hens from all three halls of the farm. This constitutes around five percent of all the hens in Czechia. The culling began on Tuesday.

The bird flu epidemic has been spreading throughout Europe for more than a year. Outdoor breeding of poultry has been prohibited in Czechia since December 14.