Updated 4:36 am, Saturday, February 16,
2013
BERLIN (AP) — About 14,000 ducks at a German
farm are being slaughtered following a bird flu outbreak.
A federal laboratory confirmed Friday the H5N1
virus was detected at the farm near Seelow, east of Berlin — the first such
finding in Germany in more than three years.
On Saturday, officials started slaughtering the
farm's ducks. Local council spokesman Tobias
Seyfarth told news agency dpa that all poultry within a one-kilometer
(half-mile) radius of the facility will be kept under observation for the next
21 days, with owners told to keep their birds where they are and report
any symptoms.
The H5N1 virus normally spreads between sick
poultry, but it can sometimes spread from poultry to humans. Bird flu has
killed 367 people worldwide since surfacing in 2003, the World Health
Organization says.
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