New bird flu case reported in Netherlands

New bird flu case reported in Netherlands

Dutch authorities have reported a fresh outbreak of bird flu on a poultry farm in the west of the country, but could not say if it was the worrying new strain detected elsewhere in the Netherlands.

“Avian influenza has been detected on a poultry farm at Zoeterwoude,
where some 28,000 birds are affected,” the economy ministry said in a
statement on Sunday.

“The birds are infected with the H5 variant of the flu but it’s not yet known whether of the highly pathogenic variety or not,” it added.

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 bird flu are fatal for chickens and pose a health threat to humans, who can fall sick after handling infected poultry.

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 south-east Asia, since first appearing in 2003. Another strain of bird flu, H7N9, has claimed more than 170 lives since emerging in 2013.

The latest outbreak came in a poultry farm about 21 miles (35km)
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 and Germany, and Britain has also reported similar strains of the virus.

Authorities on Sunday were destroying the birds at the site of the latest outbreak at Zoeterwoude and have set up a six-mile (10km cordon around the farm.

Four other poultry farms in the area are being investigated for bird flu,
authorities said.

The H7N7 strain of bird flu severely hit the Netherlands in 2003 with health authorities destroying about 30m birds in an effort to limit the outbreak, reports The Guardian.

There are 95m chickens on Dutch poultry farms and egg exports totalled €10.6bn (£8.4bn) in 2011, according to the latest Dutch statistics.