Dutch check farms after ‘contagious’ bird flu outbreak
Dutch officials were on Monday checking poultry farms for a highly infectious strain of bird flu following an outbreak in a central village of the virus which could infect humans. Public health authorities on Sunday banned the transport of poultry nationwide after the discovery in the village of Hekendorp of a "highly pathogenic" form of avian influenza that is very dangerous to birds and can contaminate humans. British authorities have also reported a bird flu outbreak at a duck breeding farm in northern England but have not specified whether it is the same strain as in the Netherlands. The destruction of around 150,000 hens at the egg farm in Hekendorp, near Utrecht, should be completed on Monday, said Lex Denden of the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA).
