EU country unable to contain bird flu epidemic

Another outbreak of highly contagious bird flu was registered in the Netherlands on Wednesday, with the country’s Agriculture Ministry saying that 77,000 chickens will now be culled.

The affected hen farm was located in the small town of Putten in the north of the country.

The Dutch authorities have registered more than 20 outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza on poultry farms across the EU nation since late October.

Data from Wageningen University suggested that 1.5 million chickens, ducks and turkeys have been disposed of in the drive to stop the infection, which has so far been unsuccessful.

The worst cases were reported in early January, when 222,000 chickens had to be culled in Blija and another 189,000 in Bentelo.

Some media outlets have described the H5N1 situation in the Netherlands as the worst epidemic of its kind ever to hit Europe.

Dutch scientists have blamed migratory birds for bringing the highly contagious HPAI H5N1 viruses into the country.

According to Wageningen University, the types of bird flu currently found in the Netherlands “are not related to the Asian H5N1 strains that can infect humans.”