Dutch authorities have confirmed the bird flu identified at a poultry farm is the highly contagious H5N8 strain, detected in Europe less than two weeks ago.<br /><br />A massive cull of 150,000 chickens has been ordered, and transport of all poultry throughout the country has been banned for 30 days.<br /><br />The virus was first detected at a farm in the village of Henkendorp, 65 kilometres south of Amsterdam on Saturday, and matches the strain found at a farm in north-east Germany on November 4th.<br /><br />Previous outbreaks of avian flu in Europe and Asia have proven highly contagious<br /><br />The strain found in the Netherlands has yet to be detected in humans but the variant is lethal to birds and could affect people in close contact.
