What to do if an animal-borne disease breaks out

Official updatesLU-Alert · RTL, 100.7 · 112

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Keep away from sick or dead animals, especially wild birds. Do not touch them with bare hands, and keep children and pets away from them.
Call Status: Verified if you find several dead wild birds, especially inside a zone the authorities have restricted. Say exactly where they are, and leave them where they lie.
Wash your hands well with soap and water after any contact with animals, their droppings, cages, feeders or bedding.
Follow the official rules for your area: restricted zones, rules for animal keepers and food warnings. They come through LU-Alert, infocrise and the national food and veterinary authority (ALVA).
If you keep poultry, move their feed and water indoors and keep the birds where wild birds cannot reach them. Call your vet if a bird seems ill.
Stop eating any food named in a recall. See a doctor, or a vet for an animal, if symptoms appear after eating it.
Call your doctor promptly if you get a fever, a cough or other flu symptoms after close contact with sick or dead birds, and say that you were in contact. Antiviral treatment works best when it starts early.

Animal disease warnings come from ALVA and the crisis services, through LU-Alert, infocrise and the news. Install the LU-Alert app: some food-safety warnings come through the app only. See Alerts and sirens.
The government has a response plan for bird flu. If an outbreak is declared, the authorities set the zones and the rules, and those rules come first.

Wash your hands after touching animals, their food or their cages, and always before you eat.
Teach children not to touch dead birds or wild animals, and to tell an adult instead.
The seasonal flu vaccine does not protect you against bird flu.

House the birds, or cover their run, so that wild birds cannot get in. Keep feed and water indoors or under a roof.
Buy birds only from certified breeders, and check your flock every day.
Take birds to shows or markets only when a vet supervises the event.
Write your vet's phone number into your household plan, and keep pet food in the kit.

Keep to the rules for your zone until the authorities lift them. An outbreak can flare up again.
Keep washing your hands after contact with animals.
If you fall ill later and you had contact with sick animals, tell your doctor about that contact.
Check official recall notices before you eat food you stored during the outbreak.
If you are struggling after losing animals or worrying about your flock, talk to someone you trust. See Coping with a crisis.

Keep them away from dead birds in parks, gardens and by the water. Wash their hands after a farm visit or after stroking animals.
Explain in plain words that animals can carry illnesses, and that a grown-up deals with a dead animal.

Flu can be more serious for some groups, such as older people and people with a long-term illness. Call your doctor early if you develop flu symptoms.
Ask someone else to clean out cages or bird feeders during an outbreak.

Keep cats and dogs away from dead birds and wild animals, and follow any local rule on keeping pets in or on a lead.
Call your vet if your pet becomes ill after contact with a dead or sick animal.

Follow the rules for your zone at once, report sick birds to your vet, and do not move birds while the rules are in force.