The European Commission is set to introduce emergency measures next week to contain the spread of bird flu in Poland, news agency Reuters reported.
Poland has reported 73 outbreaks of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in the past two months, with the majority—53 cases—occurring in the Masovian and Greater Poland regions.
“Given the large scale of the outbreaks (in those two regions)… it is necessary to adopt additional emergency measures to be applied in those high-risk areas, strengthening the prevention and control measures. These measures also seek, in taking these prevention steps, to protect the Polish poultry industry more widely,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
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While the statement didn’t elaborate on the nature of the emergency measures, the spokerperson said that the national and regional authorities had agreed to them.
In an emailed response to Reuters questions, the Polish agriculture ministry said the extraordinary measures would “primarily concern the introduction of a ban on new farms located in the area subject to restrictions until the HPAI epidemic is brought under control”.
“The Polish… authorities are conducting an intensive dialogue with the EC to limit the territorial restrictions and obtain derogations for the movement of other products originating from poultry and the activities of poultry hatcheries,” the ministry added.
Between December, 2024, and March, 2025, Europe reported 743 detections of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5) virus in domestic and wild birds across 31 countries. Almost all the cases are linked to direct or indirect exposure to infected animals or contaminated environments.
