Dutch authorities cull 190k ducks to contain bird flu outbreak

Dutch authorities have culled 190,000 ducks in a farm in the central Netherlands where inspectors have confirmed the presence of a highly infectious strain of bird flu.

Officials and local media said on Sunday that the outbreak was detected at a farm in Biddinghuizen, located about 70 kilometers west of Amsterdam.

The Dutch food and safety watchdog NVWA said in a statement that about 180,000 ducks were put down together with another 10,000 within a one-kilometer radius.

"There are three other poultry farms within a three-kilometer radius and they are being monitored," the statement said.

The statement added that authorities had imposed a ban on poultry and poultry product transport within a 10-kilometer radius.

Meanwhile, public newscaster NOS said tests indicated that the birds were killed by an H5N8 variant of the disease "which is highly infectious" for poultry, killing about 30 percent of infected birds, but not "very dangerous to humans."

Earlier this month, the Netherlands banned duck hunting and shuttered petting zoos as it stepped up measures to stem a bird flu outbreak.

The outbreak has been blamed for killing more than a thousand wild birds across the European country.

A park in the western port of Rotterdam closed its animal section after several aquatic birds were found to have died from the H5N8 virus.

Local news reports said about 1,250 wild birds were found dead on the banks of Lake Markermeer, close to Amsterdam, earlier this month.

SS