Germany culls 16,100 turkeys after bird flu found on farm
HAMBURG (Reuters) - Germany has ordered around 16,100 turkeys to be slaughtered after bird flu was found on another poultry farm, authorities said on Monday.
Type H5N8 bird flu was confirmed in a farm on the island of Ruegen in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, said local government authority Landkreis Vorpommern-Ruegen.
Wild birds are believed to be spreading the disease, with some 23 cases of bird flu recorded in wild birds on Ruegen since the end of October, the authority said.
A series of outbreaks of bird flu have been reported in Germany and elsewhere in Europe in past weeks with wild birds also suspected of spreading the disease.
Dutch health officials on Nov. 10 ordered the culling of 48,000 chickens after bird flu was discovered on a farm in the province of Groningen.
Britain ordered a cull of 13,000 birds at a farm in northwest England after detecting cases there.
The risk to humans from the disease is considered to be low, but past outbreaks among farm birds have needed extensive slaughtering programmes to contain them.
(Reporting by Michael Hogan, editing by David Evans)
