Avian flu cases are likely to contribute to higher roast goose prices well into the upcoming holiday season. The breeding animals represented the bottleneck, said Timm Harder from the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI) of the German Press Agency. The geese only breed in the spring, explained the head of the reference laboratory for bird flu at the FLI. If, after an outbreak from a smaller number of eggs, new parents had to be produced first, there would also be fewer fattening animals that could be slaughtered at the end of a year. “That explains the multi-year slump in geese production.”
Wolfgang Schleicher, Managing Director of the Central Association of the German Poultry Industry, said that it took a year and a half before the animals were ready for slaughter if they were hit at the beginning of the laying period. German goose meat has increased in price by about a third to 20 euros per kilogram, also because of increased feed and energy costs as a result of the Ukraine war. Many restaurateurs had already announced that they would add cheaper alternatives to their goose menus, such as game, duck or beef. Schleicher said that German companies only cover around 15 percent of domestic needs. The rest come from abroad. According to Harder, however, the bird flu also hit the larger European producers Hungary and Poland this year.
Around 50 million birds killed
According to figures published on Tuesday by the European Food Safety Authority, from October 2021 to September 2022 a total of 2520 outbreaks in poultry, 227 in domestic birds and 3867 in wild birds were reported in 37 European countries. Around 50 million birds were killed in affected farms. The bird flu epidemic is the largest ever observed in Europe. Due to the unusually high incidence of infection in summer, it is no longer possible to clearly separate the epidemics, which are normally limited to the cold season.
According to Harder, any safety measures in spring could also affect the supply of geese for the 2023 public holidays. If the animals are no longer allowed to leave their stalls outdoors because of the virus, this will hinder reproduction. According to Schleicher, this stresses the birds. “Of course, this also has an overall effect on fertility, because the animals simply don’t feel well.”
