Two cases of a highly infectious strain of bird flu were discovered in Europe on Sunday, leading chickens to be killed in the Netherlands and Britain, officials said Monday, stating that there was a very low risk to public health.
Following an outbreak of the bird flu virus, both Dutch officials and British officials were checking poultry farms in a Dutch central village and in northern England on Monday, The Telegraph reported.
The head of the World Animal Health Organization told Reuters on Monday that the outbreaks could be linked, as the virus is most often transmitted through wild birds, and was found this weekend at a poultry farm in the central Netherlands, as well as a case early this month in Germany.
At a breeding farm in the Driffield area of East Yorkshire, all 6,000 ducks were planning to be killed on Monday while a restriction zone was also being set up to prevent any further spread of the H5 bird flu infection, British officials said, adding that nearby farms were also being checked and tested for security measures.
Described to be the first bird flu outbreak in six years, the UK government food agency confirmed that there was no risk to the food chain, with British Chief Veterinary Officer Nigel Gibbens stating that the risk of the disease spreading is probably quite low.
In a Hekendorp village, 40 miles south of Amsterdam, public health authorities banned the transport of poultry and eggs throughout the Netherlands on Sunday after discovering a "highly pathogenic" form of avian influenza at a chicken farm, the Associated Press reported.
Avian influenza is fatal for chickens, and poses a health threat to humans, who can become sickened by handling infected poultry. But Dutch authorities have said human infection can only occur following "intense and direct contact" with infected birds.
At the Dutch farm, about 150,000 chickens were getting prepared to be gassed on Monday while 16 other nearby farms were being checked, said Lex Denden of the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority.
"We're checking another 16 poultry farms in around a 10-kilometre (six mile) radius," he told AFP. "No other cases have so far been detected and we hope to complete the tests today."
An emergency ordinance was issued by Hekendorp mayor Pieter Verhoeve, closing off the village to all traffic except officials and residents for a maximum of 72 hours from Sunday, including any transport of poultry, eggs and bird manure.
However, a 10-kilometer ring around the affected farm, which has also been banned, could last up to 30 days.
For now, it remains unclear how the farms became infected
Previously, H5N8 had only been detected in Asia and recently on a German farm. Additionally, the H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed more than 400 people, mainly in Southeast Asia, since first appearing in 2003 while another strain of bird flu, H7N9, has claimed more than 170 lives since emerging in 2013.
According to Dutch media, the H7N7 strain of avian flu severely hit the Netherlands in 2003 with health authorities destroying some 30 million birds in an effort to quash an outbreak.
