Bird flu returns to Europe as FIVE countries find deadly HN58 strains amid fears Spanish Flu-style killer pandemic could hit Britain
OVER a million chickens and ducks have been slaughtered amid fears of a worldwide bird flu outbreak.
The virus has been found in a number of European countries - including France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland and Germany.
The Netherlands have now culled 190,000 ducks in an attempt to prevent the H5N8 strain from spreading to more animals.
The strain was discovered present at a poultry farm in the village of Biddinghuizen - and authorities have now banned the transportation of poultry products within a 10km radius of the site.
Officials said in a statement: "There are three other poultry farms within a three kilometre radius and they are being monitored."
Avian flu severely hit the Netherlands in 2003 with health authorities destroying some 30 million birds in an effort to quash an outbreak.
The H5N8 was also detected in 20 wild ducks in Northern France over the weekend, leading to increased surveillance in the area.
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513,000 chickens and 489,000 ducks have also been culled in South Korea since November 16, where the H5N8 strain first appeared in early 2014.
Authorities there are now battling the H5N6 strain of the virus, which can spread to humans and has killed at least 10 people in China since April 2014.
While H5N8 strain has never been detected in humans, the World Health Organisation for Animals recently warned more outbreaks of H5N8 are likely in Europe as wild birds believed to transmit the virus migrate southward.
Wild birds can carry the virus without showing symptoms and transmit it to poultry.
According to NHS guidelines, the two strains of bird flu which are most dangerous to humans are H5N1 and H7N9.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed more than 420 people, mainly in southeast Asia, since first appearing in 2003. Meanwhile, H7N9 has claimed more than 200 lives since emerging in 2013, according to World Health Organisation figures.
The reported researchers believe the "building blocks" of a virus as deadly as the Spanish flu (H1N1) outbreak of 1918 could be present in poultry - with Dr William Schaffner, of Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, warning the virus could go global in just two years.
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