Deadliest bird flu in 20 years tears through Netherlands

Amsterdam: Dutch authorities have had to cull about 6 million animals this year as a result of rampant bird flu. It was the deadliest bird flu outbreak in almost 20 years, the Dutch regulatory authority NVWA announced in Utrecht on Thursday.

Mainly poultry has been affected. In 2003, about 30 million animals were culled on 255 farms. The largest single outbreak to date was reported on a farm in the south-eastern town of Heythuysen, near the border with Germany, where approximately 300,000 laying hens were infected. They are to be culled in the next few days.

The new variant of the virus was first detected a year ago in the Netherlands.

-Ranjith Perera-