Bird flu found on poultry farm in Barneveld, may be mild variant

Bird flu has been identified on a poultry farm in Barneveld, government inspectors confirmed on Thursday afternoon.

Although the strain is likely to be a mild variety, the farm will be cleared of livestock and all 30,000 laying hens will be killed. Officials hope to be able to say which variety of bird flu is involved by Friday.

The mild form of the disease is not infectious but can mutate into an extremely infectious variant, news agency ANP says.

The movement of all poultry, eggs, manure and other waste within a kilometer of the farm has been banned. There are 17 other poultry farms within a one kilometer radius and they will all be checked for symptoms of the disease, ANP reports. Barneveld is at the centre of the Dutch egg industry.

At the end of last year, a highly infectious form of bird flu was identified on four farms in the Netherlands. Measures to stop the spread of the disease were lifted in February.