New Strain of Bird Flu Prompts a Warning for Farmers

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/25/world/europe/new-strain-of-bird-flu-prompts-a-warning-for-farmers.html

Version 0 of 1.

A new, lethal strain of bird flu detected this month on poultry farms in Britain and the Netherlands has now been reported in Germany, among both domesticated birds and a wild bird, international agriculture authorities said Monday. A warning posted by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health said the new virus, H5N8, was the same as a strain that hit poultry, migratory birds and waterfowl in China, Japan and South Korea this year. Its discovery within such a short time in three European countries, the warning said, suggests that wild birds may have spread the virus. The warning said the virus posed “a significant threat” to poultry farmers in countries along the Black Sea and East Atlantic migratory routes of wild birds. While H5N8 has not affected humans, the warning said it was related to H5N1, the bird flu that caused an epidemic in 2005-6, causing the deaths of nearly 400 people and the culling of hundreds of millions of birds.