Bird flu: Dutch authorities confirm second outbreak at chicken farm
Case was 15 miles away from farm infected earlier this week
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Your support makes all the difference.Dutch authorities have confirmed a second case of bird flu at a chicken farm, 15 miles away from a farm infected earlier this week.
Thursday's case was at a farm in the village of Ter Aar in South Holland province.
Tests are being conducted to establish the exact strain of bird flu in the latest case. The earlier Dutch case was confirmed as H5N8, which British officials said poses a very low public health risk.
All 43,000 chickens at the farm in Ter Aar were being slaughtered and the government banned the transport of poultry and eggs nationwide.
The infection follows a confirmed outbreak of bird flu on a Yorkshire duck breeding farm, where officials were forced to cull all 6,000 birds in order to prevent any spread of infection.
That case was the H5 version of the virus, which differs from the H5N1 strain which has caused deaths in humans. The Government has stressed the risk to humans remains “very low”.
On Monday, the European Commission introduced emergency measures to contain outbreaks of bird flu in the UK and the Netherlands.
The transport of poultry and eggs throughout the Netherlands is now banned as officials believe that the disease may have spread to the UK via Dutch or German links.
Additional reporting by PA
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