A highly contagious form of bird fly has been detected in
the Dutch village of Hekendorp, in the province of
Utrecht, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs
announced on Sunday.
The National Institute for Public Health and Environment
(RIVM) confirmed to national broadcaster NOS that the
bird flu variant is H5N8, a type which also occurred
earlier this month in Germany.
The infection with highly pathogenic strain of avian
influenza was found in a poultry farm. The type is very
contagious among birds. For chickens, this version is
deadly.
This type of bird flu can also spread to humans, but the
effects are not serious. However, protective measures
are adopted for people who may come into direct and
close contact with infected poultry. Also, a temporary
standstill of transport for poultry farms and mixed farms
with poultry was proclaimed throughout the
Netherlands.
The farm in Hekendorp is being cleared by the
Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety
Authority (NVWA). It is a poultry farm with six stalls
with a total of around 150,000 laying hens.
As of Sunday, at 11.30 a.m. a total ban was ordered on
transporting poultry and other poultry, eggs, poultry
manure and used bedding from poultry farms and mixed
farms with poultry. This prohibition applies to a
maximum of 72 hours, while the 16 poultry farms in a
zone of 10 km around the company got a ban of 30 days.

culled from www.punching.com