Bird Flu Center

ollowing the discovery of bird flu traces on a Dutch farm last week, several countries have chosen to ban imports of poultry from the country. The virus found was a low pathogenic strain of avian influenza and authorities now say no new cases have been discovered in the last days. Therefore measures have been eased and activity is now again allowed at the farm, but in a safe perimeter set up in its vicinity. The countries that imposed partial of complete bans are Russia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Last week 25,000 chickens were culled at the farm, to contain the virus, while other 130 farms were sealed for further testing. The European country is one of the world’s top poultry producing and exporting countries. The virus detected now is nowhere near as dangerous as the one the Dutch faced in 2003, but measures still needed to be taken to prevent it from mutating into a more aggressive form.