Avian influenza: hotel employees should be careful with dead animals

Berlin, Germany – 13 December 2016
Dead poultry is increasingly found on properties of hotels, guesthouses and restaurants. Employees should use extra caution when disposing them, as stated by official authorities.

There is generally no additional risk for the staff. According to Ulrich Jander, a German consultant specialised on hotel security, ducks or similar animals by the pond should not be touched at all. His advice is to dispose the dead animals with a waste gripper into a rubbish bag and to directly inform the Veterinary Office afterwards.

Food safety control is responsible for the monitoring of all foods, which are processed in the restaurant. If there are signs, which could draw the attention to this kind of contamination, those foods may not be placed on the market. According to Sander, „there is actually no risk associated with poultry, offered in restaurants, The meat usually originates from controlled stocks and is thoroughly cooked.“

„Consumption of poultry, eggs and other poultry related products is safe. Even if domestic birds are infected, there is no present danger for the consumer. The avian influenza virus is already completely destroyed at +70 degree Celsius, which is the usual preparation temperature in kitchens “, says an official information on food safety issues.

There has rarely been any animal to human transmission so far. Those few cases however, where infection happens under certain circumstances, can even be fatal. Since 2003, there have been globally confirmed 845 human cases of avian influenza. (Source: WHO, Status as of July 2016). This is only a very small number, as the same disease has spread for years among the billions of people living in the Far East. Based on current knowledge, human diseases require an intense, direct contact to infected poultry.