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Amsterdam - Dutch animal health authorities say they have found bird flu in two samples taken from wild ducks, but it is unclear if that was the source of an outbreak at four chicken farms.
Duck droppings from the central Dutch province tested positive for the highly contagious H5 strain of the disease, the deputy economic affairs minister wrote in a letter to parliament.
"Based on this information I am considering follow-up measures," said deputy minister Sharon Dijksma.
Dutch authorities said earlier that they would slaughter 50 000 birds at a poultry farm after bird flu was discovered nearby. Separate testing indicated that farm infections, which had led to the culling of around 300 000 birds at four locations, were not all from the same source.
The H5N8 strain of bird flu detected at the farms has never been founded in humans. It has led to the destruction of millions of farm birds in Asia, mainly South Korea, after an outbreak earlier this year.
Some experts believe that wild birds migrating from Asia carried the disease to Europe, where it infected flocks in Germany, Britain and the Netherlands.
