November 25, 2014

Bird flu spreads in Europe

Switzerland has banned poultry imports from the Netherlands and Britain after bird flu cases had been detected in these areas.

The ban, which took effect Saturday, applies to live chickens, chicks and eggs from affected zones in the two countries, Switzerland's Federal Office for Food Security and Veterinary Affairs said.

Holland's Ministry of Economic Affairs, meanwhile, has confirmed that a second bird flu outbreak was detected Thursday on a farm at Ter Aar east of The Hague.

The bird flu virus detected here has been determined to be the highly pathogenic H5N8 strain, previously detected only in Asia.

Following confirmation of the outbreak, neighbouring Belgium has ordered poultry owners to confine their birds to avoid contamination and spreading the virus further.

The Dutch economic affairs ministry said the H5N8 bird flu strain could be fatal for chickens, adding that they also pose a health threat to humans who can fall sick after handling infected poultry.

Bird flu was detected on three other farms in and around Kamperveen, about 100 km north of the first outbreaks, the Dutch economic affairs ministry said.

The ministry said the birds on all three farms will be destroyed and the farms disinfected.

Meanwhile, health authorities in Germany have confirmed coming across another bird flu case in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

An H5N8 virus, they said, was detected in a wild bird. The strain is known to be very contagious in birds.

They were confident that the bird flu found in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern along with those in Britain and Netherlands are strongly connected with wild birds.