Health officials moved to combat outbreaks of bird flu at poultry farms in Britain and the Netherlands on Monday, culling thousands of chickens and ducks to avert the spread of infection.
Read more: Avian Flu Detected in the Netherlands and Britain - NYTimes.com
On
Sunday, the Dutch authorities blocked the transportation of eggs and
poultry across the country after a strain of the flu was detected at a
farm in Hekendorp, south of Amsterdam. The strain was said to be lethal
for poultry and potentially transmissible to humans.
The
authorities ordered the slaughter of 150,000 chickens at the farm. News
reports identified the strain as H5N8, which has never been detected in
humans, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and
Control in Stockholm. The strain has been reported in birds in South
Korea, China, Japan and, earlier this month, in Germany.
“This
highly pathogenic variant of avian influenza is very dangerous for bird
life,” the Dutch government said. “The disease can be transmitted from
animals to humans.”
In
Britain, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said
that a case of the virus had been found in ducks at a farm in the
Driffield area of East Yorkshire in the north of England, but that the
risk to public health was “very low.” While the exact strain was still
being investigated, the outbreak was not caused by the lethal H5N1
strain and “there is no risk to the food chain,” the department said.
Read more: Avian Flu Detected in the Netherlands and Britain - NYTimes.com
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