A new outbreak of a dangerous virus has been discovered in northern Israel.

The third outbreak of bird flu this season has been detected in the village of Nahalal in the Jezreel Valley in northern Israel – just 600 meters from the first outbreak, which was recorded in early September in the same village.

The first two cases of mass infection of poultry with this dangerous disease, which can also affect other animals (pigs, cats, leopards, etc.), were established on a farm in Nahalal, consisting of nine large chicken coops in which 8,700 14-week-old turkeys were raised, and two and a half weeks later – in the village of Ram-On, located south of the Jezreel Valley, in four chicken coops in which about 34 thousand meat-breed chickens were kept.

This time, the disease broke out in two large chicken coops in Nahalal, where 34,000 chickens, also meat breeds, were raised.

The Ministry of Agriculture usually fights sources of bird flu in the country radically – it isolates the territory within a radius of 10 kilometers from the outbreak and slaughters potentially dangerous birds. This is what the department will do this time too. At the same time, the Ministry of Agriculture calls on all owners of domestic animals and free-ranging birds to keep them in special premises.

As reported earlier, bird flu is an acute infectious disease of birds that can be transmitted to humans. It is characterized by acute febrile syndrome, lung damage, and high mortality. The pathogenic agent of bird flu for humans is the influenza virus type A (H5N1, H5N2, and others). In most cases, it is transmitted from infected birds, but cannot be spread between people. However, today it is possible that, as a result of mutations, the virus may acquire the ability to be transmitted from person to person.

In recent weeks, outbreaks of bird flu have also been registered abroad, in particular in France, Germany, Poland and the United States.

Between September and December last year, five cases of bird flu were recorded in Israel, with the northern village of Sde Yaakov and four other kibbutzim being the first to be affected.

Since March 2006, when the first cases of bird flu were recorded in Israel, the disease has been detected almost every year during the bird migration season.

In response to the assessment of the situation and to avoid a shortage of chicken eggs during the Jewish autumn holidays, the Ministry of Agriculture is increasing the duty-free import quota to 40 million eggs until the end of November. Israel produces an average of 2.2 billion eggs per year to meet local demand, but due to the current military crisis and damage to poultry farms in the north, imports have become necessary. Eggs are usually purchased from areas free of bird flu, such as Italy, Poland, Ukraine, Spain, Portugal, Bulgaria and even the United States.