On August 2nd, 2023, Poland regained the status of a country with self-declared freedom from high pathogenicity avian influenza viruses, the World Organisation for Animal Health informs. The status has been suspended since December 7th, 2022. At that time an outbreak of avian influenza virus of H5N1 podtype was confirmed on a farm in the Opole Voivodeship. The information about regaining the status was also published by the Chief Veterinary Officer in Poland.

To maintain the status, local authorities and veterinary inspection departments conduct awareness-raising campaigns around avian influenza in cooperation with poultry associations. The designated purpose of the campaigns is to influence improvements in general biosecurity and farm management, especially in the regions marked as being at high risk of HPAI outbreak. The Veterinary Inspectorate provides steady updates on the HPAI state in the natural habitat. The regaining of the status i san important step towards reestablishing poultry meat export, including non-European markets such as China and Hong Kong. The Chief Veterinary Officer issued a petition to all countries that had limited the trade of poultry meat and products with Poland due to the avian influenza outbreak to nullify the restrictions.