Avian Influenza
- AVIAN INFLUENZA
(84): NETHERLANDS (UTRECHT) POULTRY, HIGH PATHOGENICITY SUSPECTED
It’s confirmed that the strain is the H5N8
Dutch authorities
on Sunday [16 Nov 2014] banned the transport of poultry throughout the Netherlands
after finding a strain of bird flu that can jump the species barrier to
humans at a farm in the middle of the country. "This highly pathogenic
variant of avian influenza [AI] is very dangerous for bird life," the
government said in a statement. "The disease can be transmitted from
animals to humans."
The disease was
1st identified at a battery poultry farm with 150 000 hens in the village
of Hekendorp late on Saturday [15 Nov 2014]. Authorities are currently destroying
the birds. The variant, which has not been named, is dangerous for all birds
and fatal for chickens.
Earlier outbreaks
of bird flu in Europe and Asia have been highly contagious and have infected
humans, prompting fears that bird flu outbreaks could spark a major epidemic.
Authorities on
Sunday [16 Nov 2014] morning imposed a 72-hour ban on transporting all poultry
products, including birds, eggs, dung and used straw to and from poultry
farms throughout the country. They also imposed a countrywide ban on all
kinds of hunting. The ban will remain in force for 30 days for the 16 poultry
farms within a 10-km radius of the site of the outbreak, and all of them
will be subject to enhanced
security measures for visitors and regularly checked for signs of bird flu.
Some 10 000 chickens
were destroyed in March 2014 after bird flu was found at a farm in the eastern
Dutch province of Gelderland. Earlier this month [November 2014], Germany
detected cases of the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu strain which has hit
Asia but has never been reported in Europe. In September 2014, Russia reported
the 1st cases of H5N1, another dangerous strain, in nearly 2 years.
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