The flu epidemic among the seal population of the Wadden Sea appears to be over and there have been no new reported infections since mid February, junior economic affairs minister Sharon Dijksma has told parliament.

A variant of bird flu (H10N7) which is highly infectious for seals had reached the Wadden Sea via Germany and Denmark, where several thousand seals died.

Some 190 dead seals were found on the Dutch Wadden Island coast during the winter, many of which were found to have the disease.