(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Dutch officials were yesterday checking poultry farms for a highly infectious strain of bird flu following outbreaks of similar strains of the virus in Britain and Germany.
Public health authorities on Sunday banned the transport of poultry throughout the Netherlands 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.
The destruction of around 150,000 hens at the egg farm in Hekendorp, near Utrecht, should be completed yesterday, said Lex Denden of the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA).
The European Commission on Monday praised the Dutch and British response to the outbreaks amid warnings that the disease could spread further. "We can only praise the behaviour of the authorities of the two member states," said Commission spokesman Enrico Brivio.
A duck breeding farm in northern England was closed off on Monday after an outbreak of bird flu, although officials said the risk to public health was "very low".
An estimated 6,000 ducks on the farm will be culled and a 10km restriction zone has been put around the site near Driffield in Yorkshire.
Renowned virologist and bird flu expert Ron Fouchier said that British authorities had told European authorities that their virus is the same H5N8 strain as found in Germany earlier this month and now in the Netherlands. "The UK virus is also similar to the German one, that would mean that it's the H5N8 strain," Fouchier said.
An EU source told reporters that it is "most likely the same strain in all three places," the Netherlands, Britain and Germany.
The source said "more outbreaks would not be surprising" in countries such as France, Spain and Italy as the "disease might have come from swans migrating from north to south."
Dutch food authority spokesman Denden told AFP they were checking 16 farms in around a 10km radius from the infected farm. He said that two farms in the immediate vicinity of the infected farm had already been given the all-clear.
Roadblocks have been set up around the village to prevent people not on official business from entering. The atmosphere in the village was quiet yesterday, with police and black barriers screening off the infected farm amid fears of further outbreaks in Europe's biggest egg and poultry exporter.
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