Dutch
authorities have determined that the bird flu detected at a poultry farm in the
central Netherlands is the highly contagious H5N8 strain. Until recently, H5N8
had never been detected in Europe.
Deutsche Welle, 16 Nov 2014
Dutch
officials announced a series of measures designed to contain the outbreak ofbird flu early on Sunday, even before it was clear which strain of the virus they were dealing with.
The
government imposed a 72-hour ban on the transport of all poultry products
including eggs, manure and used straw to and from all farms across the country
which borders Germany and Belgium.
The
transport ban for a 10-kilometer (six mile) radius surrounding the affected
farm is to last for the next 30 days.
Agriculture
inspectors then began the job of slaughtering all 150,000 chickens at the farm
in central Dutch village of Hekendorp.
Danger to
humans played down
Despite
these precautionary measures, government officials played down risks to human
health.
"It's
a highly pathogenic strain for birds," Jan van Diepen a spokesman for the
Netherlands' Ministry for Economic Affairs said.
"For
people it's not that dangerous: you'd only get it if you were in very close
contact with the birds."
Another
ministry spokesman said the farm sold eggs rather than poultry.
The farm's
owner, Piet Wiltenburg told the Reuters news agency that most of his produce
was sold in the Netherlands, although some was exported to Germany.
"There
is absolutely nothing wrong with that produce," he said.
Second
recent find in Europe
This is
just the second time that the HfN8 strain of bird flu has been detected in
Europe, after more than 30,000 turkeys had to be destroyed after it was found
at a turkey farm in the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania earlier this month.
Previously,
it had mainly been found in South Korea, where its discovery led to four
separate slaughters in which thousands of birds were culled.
According
to Reuters, around 10,000 chickens were put down in March after a less
contagious strain of bird flu was detected at a farm in eastern Holland.
pfd/ipj (Reuters, dpa)
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