Avian flu sparks protective measures
Holland, the biggest poultry exporter in the EU, has slaughtered around 15 million birds in a bid to control the highly contagious disease.
All Dutch poultry and egg exports remain banned, costing the industry there an estimated €2 million a day. The European Commission has enforced the ban at EU level until April 25.
Belgian authorities have also destroyed about 270,000 birds, after a suspected outbreak was found on a farm close to the Dutch border. They have announced another mass cull of chickens and other poultry after two more suspected cases were detected on farms in Belgium at the weekend.
Fear that the disease may spread to people were also heightened, when the Dutch authorities said a 57-year-old vet, who died of pneumonia earlier in the week, may have been the first human victim of the outbreak. He had visited a contaminated poultry farm.
However, the World Health Organisation said the disease did not appear to spread easily from human to human.
Ireland has banned the import of live poultry and hatching eggs from Holland and Belgium to protect the industry here, which has a farm gate value of €150m a year.
