The Hague, Oct 13 (AFP) Dutch poultry farmers, alreadyleft reeling by a contaminated egg scandal, were in a new flaptoday over an outbreak of bird flu with thousands of hens tobe destroyed.
"An outbreak of a variant of H5 bird flu has beendetected in a poultry farm in Zeeland province," EconomicAffairs Minister Henk Kamp said.
All 42,000 egg-laying hens in the southern Netherlandsfarm will have to be culled "to stop the disease spreading" inaccordance with European regulations, he added in a statement.
"A mild pathogenic variant of H5 can mutuate into a verycontagious and deadly strain for chickens, therefore in allsuch cases the animals have to be put down."The ministry also ordered an immediate ban on thetransportation of poultry, eggs, meat and manure within a onekilometre zone around the farm located in the village of SintPhilipsland, although there are no other poultry farms in thearea.
It is a new blow for the Dutch poultry industry whichsince August has been at the centre of a tainted egg scandalthat spread across several European countries and even as faras Hong Kong.
Millions of eggs were dumped, and some 3.2 millionchickens were killed after the banned insecticide fipronil wasfound to have been used in poultry farms to combat lice, buthad made its way into eggs.
Some 267 Dutch poultry farms are still closed, awaitingthe all-clear from health officials to resume production.(AFP)AMS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.