Brussels, 05/06/2024 (Agence Europe) – On Monday 3 June, the European Commission published an audit by the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, criticising the Hungarian authorities for failing to address weaknesses in their animal health emergency system and monitoring of avian influenza cases.
From 2021 to 2023, Hungary experienced significant cases of avian influenza. Deficiencies in disease control were identified in 2020 in a previous Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety audit.According to veterinary experts, the improvement measures proposed by the EU are either not being applied, are at an early stage of application, or have no effect. Among other things, Hungary did not reduce the density of the poultry population in the areas identified as problematic, and it did not react quickly enough to the confirmation of cases of contamination and the selective culling of poultry. The EU is calling for Hungarian measures to combat avian influenza to be stepped up.
Link to the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety report: https://aeur.eu/f/cjb (Original version in French by Paul Charles - Trainee)