Bulgaria to cull 19,000 hens amid bird flu outbreak
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By Euronews with Reuters
Chickens walk in a fenced pasture at an organic farm near Waukon, Iowa on 21 October 2015
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Charlie Neibergall/AP
Bulgaria will start culling approximately 19,000 laying hens on an industrial farm in the south of the country on Monday following the detection of a highly infectious strain of bird flu, regional food safety authorities report.
The national Food Safety Agency has stated that this is now the third outbreak at the farm in the village of Krivo Pole, near the city of Haskovo, over the past three years.
While the threat to human life from the disease is deemed to be low, farm birds have been killed in extensive slaughtering programmes following previous outbreaks to reduce potential risks and spread.
Other European countries like France and the Netherlands have also recently experienced outbreaks of the highly lethal variant of avian flu.