MOSCOW, November 20 (Sputnik) — New avian influenza, also known as bird flu, outbreak has been registered in the Netherlands, the Standaard reported on Thursday, citing Dutch State Secretary for Economic Affairs Sharon Dijksma.
The bird flu has been detected in one of the farms in a small town to the east of the Hague. It is still unclear, what strain of influenza was detected and whether it can be dangerous to humans, but due to the European Union regulations 43,000 chickens have been killed for security reasons.
Preliminary test results should be obtained by Friday. Until then, all transportation of chicken eggs and poultry across the country has been prohibited as a precaution. Apart from that, all poultry factories within 6 miles of the affected farm will be checked for the virus.
Earlier this week, 150,000 chickens were destroyed in another Dutch poultry farm in the village of Hakendorp. The infection was later identified as the highly contagious H5N8 strain.
In November, The UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) confirmed a case of avian influenza at a duck farm in Yorkshire. Several cases of the H5N8 bird flu strain were detected in Germany the same month.
The avian influenza, also known as the bird flu, is a respiratory disease that can be transmitted to humans from bird species. The first time the virus was found to have affected people was in 1997, when the flu struck 18 people, six of whom died.
