Bird flu in Dutch ducks

The Dutch government has ordered the culling of 600 ducks on a farm after routine blood tests showed signs of antibodies to a mild strain of bird flu, the agriculture ministry said late on Monday.

The ministry said in a statement that it had decided to order the culling of the ducks in Lopik in the central province of Utrecht after antibodies showed up that could indicate the birds were in contact with the contagious virus.

A follow-up test did not confirm an outbreak of bird flu but a further test was not able to rule out a mild strain of the virus so the ministry ordered the preventative culling.

On Saturday, the government decided to cull all 22,000 chickens at a farm in Eemsmond in the northeast of the country as a precautionary step after blood samples taken there also indicated birds had developed antibodies to the virus.

Two neighbouring poultry farms and at a third company, owned by relatives of the Eemsmond farm, were still under investigation although preliminary tests were all negative. The results of further tests will only be available in 10 to 14 days.

Last year, a mild form of the virus mutated into an aggressive variant, leading to the slaughter of a quarter of all Dutch poultry at a cost of hundreds of millions of euros.