Dutch Orders Poultry Culling After H5N8 Bird Flu Confirmation

After a bird flu outbreak on a nearby farm was confirmed as the highly pathogenic H5N8 strain, the dutch authorities on Monday ordered culling of 50,000 poultry.

After a bird flu outbreak on a nearby farm was confirmed as the highly pathogenic H5N8 strain, the dutch authorities on Monday ordered culling of almost 50,000 poultry.

The move came after authorities on Sunday identified bird flu at a poultry farm at Zoeterwoude outside The Hague, where 28,000 birds needed to be culled.

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"There is another poultry farm within one kilometre (over half a mile) of the affected farm," the economics ministry said in a statement.

"Now that H5N8 has been confirmed, the birds on that farm will now be culled. There are around 50,000 birds."

Two other farms within a 10-kilometre radius have been given the all clear, and another farm is under investigation, the ministry said.

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The highly-infectious H5N8 strain of bird flu was discovered in the Netherlands two weeks ago, where authorities suspect it might have been brought in by birds migrating from Asia.

Some strains of avian influenza are fatal for chickens, and pose a health threat to humans, who can fall sick after handling infected poultry.

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Bird flu (avian influenza/avian flu) is a disease caused by an influenza virus (H5N1) that primarily affects birds but can infect humans also.

Dutch authorities have said human infection can only occur following "intense and direct contact" with infected birds.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed more than 400 people, mainly in Southeast Asia, since first appearing in 2003. Another strain of bird flu, H7N9, has claimed more than 170 lives since emerging in 2013.

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The latest outbreak lies about 35 kilometres (21 miles) northwest of Hekendorp, where the first outbreak was detected in mid-November, leading to around 150,000 birds being destroyed.

Bird flu has been detected in at least three other locations in the Netherlands. Germany and Britain have also reported similar strains of the virus.

The H7N7 strain of avian flu severely hit the Netherlands in 2003 with health authorities destroying some 30 million birds in an effort to quash an outbreak.

There are some 95 million chickens on Dutch poultry farms and egg exports totalled some 10.6 billion euros ($13.2 billion) in 2011, according to the latest Dutch statistics.

Source-AFP