In recent days, an epidemic of avian influenza was confirmed in an intensive turkey farm in the Märkisch-Oderland region of Germany. The verdict of the Berlin-Brandenburg State Laboratory and the Friedrich Loeffler Institute left no escape: all 18,000 turkeys present in the Gorgast facility, near Seelow, were slaughtered on the same day.
The first warning signs appeared on Monday, an unusually high number of dead animals in the stables alerted those responsible for the farm. In the space of a few hours, suspicion turned into certainty and the death sentence arrived for thousands of fattening turkeys.
Friedemann Hanke, first deputy of the district, explained that two zones subject to restrictions were immediately established: a three-kilometer protection zone around the outbreak, where all poultry farms must keep animals indoors, and a ten-kilometer surveillance zone, with sampling mandatory to prevent further infections.
The avian flu epidemic in Germany
Gorgast’s case is not an isolated case. Germany is facing its worst bird flu epidemic in three years, with no sign of improvement. In Brandenburg alone, since the beginning of last autumn, around 200,000 animals including geese, ducks, turkeys and chickens have been killed. The latest animal slaughter dates back to December, when 26,500 chickens were killed on a farm in the Havelland district.
At the national level, the numbers are even more dramatic. According to the Friedrich Loeffler Institute, 122 outbreaks on farms and 1,125 infections in wild birds had been recorded by November 2025, more than double the figure for the whole of 2024. Overall, more than one million animals have been culled in Germany this year due to avian influenza.
According to the German Institute, the risk level is “high” and no relief is in sight in the short term. The autumn migration of cranes spread the virus widely, causing the death of tens of thousands of wild birds and compromising natural balances, a true ecological tragedy.
The role of intensive farming
This crisis should make us rethink the intensive farming model. Thousands of animals crowded together in confined spaces represent the ideal environment for the spread of viruses such as avian influenza. When the contagion strikes, the authorities’ only response is mass culling, a solution as drastic as it is ineffective in the long term.
The German poultry population numbers around 200 million birds. A number which, on the one hand explains why the prices of eggs and meat have not undergone major variations despite the epidemic, on the other hand highlights the dimensions of an industrial production system that puts quantity before health safety and animal welfare.
Containment measures adopted by local authorities include mandatory confinement of poultry in risk areas and systematic sampling of farms to monitor the spread of the virus. Despite being standard procedures to limit infections, many experts underline that these actions remain mainly emergency reactions, without addressing the structural causes that favor the spread of avian influenza in intensive breeding.
Avian influenza is a seasonal disease transmitted by migratory wild birds, with epidemics tending to occur in autumn and peak in spring. Yet, year after year, the intensive farming system continues to find itself unprepared in the face of this recurring threat.
Intensive farms, with their unnatural concentration of animals, are not only places of suffering for animals, but represent real health bombs waiting to explode. The 2025 bird flu in Germany (but actually throughout Europe) is yet another wake-up call that we can no longer afford to ignore.
