Portugal’s Poultry Locked Down as 50 Bird Flu Outbreaks Hike Egg Prices

Portugal has now recorded 50 confirmed outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza since January, a milestone that is rippling from backyard coops to supermarket shelves. The figure – reached after fresh detections in Santarém, Faro and Leiria – has prompted veterinary authorities to widen movement bans and issue a rare nationwide confinement order for all domestic birds.

Snapshot before you scroll

• 50th outbreak logged this week; virus is subtype H5N1

• Latest cases: Tomar, Albufeira, Pombal

• Compulsory indoor housing for poultry extended to the entire mainland

• Egg production costs up 15 %; retail prices up 29 %

• No human infections reported in Portugal to date – risk remains low but not zero

Why the round number matters for your grocery bill

The Portuguese egg aisle has already felt the squeeze. According to trade data gathered for 2025, the average cost of producing half a dozen eggs jumped from €0.98 to €1.13, while shelf prices leapt to €1.54. Producers cite three culprits: higher feed costs, tighter bio-security upgrades, and birds lost to culls. The export pinch is just as painful: Hong Kong and Macau have temporarily blocked poultry shipments from Lisbon district, the country’s main hub for processed meat.

Mapping the newest hotspots

Health officials confirmed two commercial operations in Tomar – one raising breeder hens, the other fattening turkeys – as the 48th and 49th outbreaks. Number 50 surfaced in the wild: a sanderling collected on Albufeira’s dunes and a northern gannet found in Pombal both tested positive. Earlier in the autumn, seven separate detections in Torres Vedras made that coastal area a watchpoint for epidemiologists. Aveiro’s lagoon and the Tagus estuary remain red-flag transit corridors for migratory birds.

Containment rules: what’s new?

The Directorate-General for Food and Veterinary Affairs (DGAV) has moved from regional to nationwide confinement, meaning every chicken, duck or quail must stay indoors. All fairs, markets and pet-bird exhibitions are suspended. Around each outbreak a 3 km protection zone and a 10 km surveillance ring are imposed; within those rings, the transport of meat, eggs and even hunting birds is banned. DGAV teams have also stepped up roadside checkpoints on poultry lorries leaving central Portugal.

The science view: elevated but manageable risk

Veterinary epidemiologist Rita Sampaio explains that Portugal sits on a major Atlantic flyway: ‘If we host tens of thousands of wintering seabirds, the probability of spill-over into backyard flocks rises.’ Still, she stresses that human cases are exceedingly rare and require prolonged, unprotected contact with infected birds. Local health departments keep antiviral stockpiles ready for farm workers and recommend FFP2 masks and goggles during culling operations.

Europe’s parallel battles

Lisbon’s predicament is hardly isolated. The European Commission added 74 new commercial farms across nine member states to its restriction list in November alone. Neighbouring Spain, where mass culls exceeded 500,000 layer hens, has slowed exports of shell eggs, nudging Portuguese buyers to look as far afield as Poland. EU trade officials warn that zonal bans can linger for 90 days after the last cleaning and disinfection round, prolonging market volatility.

Voices from the barnyard economy

The Federation of Portuguese Poultry Associations (FEPASA) argues that small hobby flocks – often housed with minimal fencing – are the weakest link in disease control. Industrial producers, on the other hand, fear a different threat: loss of consumer confidence. ‘The virus does not survive proper cooking,’ says Ancave director Luís Serra, ‘yet every headline about bird flu chips away at demand’. Many farmers now invest in tunnel-ventilated barns, double fencing and vehicle sanitising arches, costs they admit will ‘inevitably filter down the chain’.

Practical tips for consumers

• Keep handling raw poultry exactly as before – cook to 75 °C and wash hands.• Report dead wild birds to the SOS Ambiente hotline (808 200 520).• If you keep chickens, register them with DGAV to receive outbreak alerts by SMS.

At-a-glance numbers

| Metric | 2025 tally || --- | --- || Confirmed outbreaks | 50 || Districts involved | 8 || Commercial flocks culled | >230,000 birds || Human cases | 0 |

The next weeks will show whether winter migration pushes that headline number higher. For now, Portuguese consumers can still enjoy frango assado safely—just expect the price tag to stay a little steeper.