December 16, 2008
Bird flu continues to spread in rural district of Germany
The outbreak of bird flu in turkey breeding establishments continues to spread widely in the rural district of Cloppenburg.
A spokesman for the rural district said over the past weekend alone, the bird flu virus was identified at six more poultry stocks, including two more farms as recently as Sunday (Dec 14) evening.
He also said around 100,000 inflected birds have so far been destroyed over the past few days, by gassing the buildings containing them.
Cloppenburg Veterinary Office head Karl-Wilhelm Paschertz said on Sunday (Dec 14) the virus continues to show a high tendency to spread, but how the virus was reaching the stocks remained unclear and infected stocks of poultry were being destroyed without delay.
A ban has been imposed on creating any new poultry stocks in part of the district as a precautionary measure.
District chief administrative officer Hans Eveslage said the ban applies to all kinds of poultry and affects the area between the coastal canal in the north, the western and eastern borders of the district and also in the south.
Eveslage said the measure is intended to thin out the poultry stocks, so as to deprive the virus of its breeding ground.
A spokesman for The Rural District of Cloppenburg said exclusion zone has been expanded so as to encompass the entire parishes of Garrel and Boesel, along with the eastern part of the town of Cloppenburg's state forests.
The spokesman said veterinaries were continuing their inspection of the poultry stocks inside the exclusion zones.
The poultry trade had at the same time extended its own examination programme.