Bird flu virus H5N8 has been discovered on two farms in Germany's Lower Saxony, the state Ministry of Agriculture announced on Monday.
It ordered tens of thousands of turkeys be killed in the county of Cloppenburg, after the Friedrich Loeffler Institute identified the variant.
The discovery came after 10,000 turkeys were killed in Oldenburg district and 12,000 animals killed in the district of Vechta.
State agricultural minister Christian Meyer said it was unclear how the virus had entered the closed turkey sheds, but authorities were investigating.
The animals were to be gassed to death and their bodies incinerated to prevent the spread of the virus.
Lower Saxony is a major center for poultry farming in Germany.
In the district of Northeim, 18 chickens and six ducks were found to have the same strain.
The H5N8 strain of bird flu is spreading in Europe, and is highly contagious among birds. Thousands of birds have been culled.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/F. KästleA laboratory worker in North Rhine-Westphalia tests a goose suspected of having bird flu. The H5N8 strain of the virus is highly contagious among poultry. According to the WHO, transmission to humans cannot be ruled out, "although the likelihood is low, based on the limited information available to date." The current outbreak was first detected in Germany on November 8.
A case of H5-type bird flu was detected at a poultry farm along this road in Cloppenburg county, Lower Saxony on November 23, leading to the culling of 16,000 turkeys. Authorities imposed a prohibited zone around the farm. The region is one of Europe's largest for poultry production, with millions of animals farmed there.
The current spread of the H5N8 infection was first discovered on the Russian-Mongolian border in June. Cases of H5N8 have also been reported in several other European countries including Hungary, Austria, the Netherlands and Denmark. Outbreaks were also reported in Israel and Iran. As of November 24, the virus had been reported in 12 German states.
In several German regions authorities have instructed farmers to keep their birds indoors in an effort to halt the spread. That's easier said than done for some - the breeder of these ostriches in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is hoping for an exemption.
While there's no evidence that mammals are being infected by H5N8, some German authorities have marked off areas where domestic animals are not allowed to roam. That's to prevent the pathogen spreading by infected dung sticking to an animal's fur or paw. Experts also think the disease could be spread among birds by predators ripping open infected wildfowl.
An official scours the shores of Lake Constance on Germany's southern border for dead birds on November 14. The president of Germany's Friedrich Löffler institute for animal health, Thomas Mettenleiter, said the infection was jumping rapidly from wild to domestic fowl. "We are currently seeing an extremely dynamic process with a strong tendency to spread," he said.
Over the past few months the virus has spread throughout Europe and Asia, probably carried by wild migratory birds. The World Health Organization found that while it was unlikely there would be human infection with the strain, it could not be excluded. It is, however, fatal for birds.
The strain had also been detected in wild birds in Lower Saxony, most recently in a dead silver gull in Hanover.
Thirteen other European countries have reported detections of the virus since October.
On Monday Greece reported finding the strain in a wild swan in the Evros river delta and on Thursday Britain reported the discovery of a wild bird with the virus.
aw/jm (dpa, AFP)
