Monday 17 November 2014

Severe form of bird flu reported in Netherlands

 A highly contagious form of bird flu has been detected in the Dutch village of Hekendorp, in the province of Utrecht, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs announced on Sunday.

The National Institute for Public Health and Environment (RIVM) confirmed to national broadcaster NOS that the bird flu variant is H5N8, a type which also occurred earlier this month in Germany.

The infection with highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza was found in a poultry farm. The type is very contagious among birds. For chickens, this version is deadly. CONTINUE READING...

This type of bird flu can also spread to humans, but the effects are not serious. However, protective measures are adopted for people who may come into direct and close contact with infected poultry. Also, a temporary standstill of transport for poultry farms and mixed farms with poultry was proclaimed throughout the Netherlands.

The farm in Hekendorp is being cleared by the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA). It is a poultry farm with six stalls with a total of around 150,000 laying hens.

As of Sunday, at 11.30 a.m. a total ban was ordered on transporting poultry and other poultry, eggs, poultry manure and used bedding from poultry farms and mixed farms with poultry. This prohibition applies to a maximum of 72 hours, while the 16 poultry farms in a zone of 10 km around the company got a ban of 30 day

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