Strain of bird flu was detected in England on Sunday a few hours after the outbreak of the disease was registered on a chicken farm in the Netherlands.

British authorities confirmed an outbreak of avian influenza at a duck farm in England, a second case of bird flu on the European territory in the course of the weekend.

“We have confirmed a case of avian flu on a duck breeding farm in Yorkshire,” British officials said, adding that the strain doesn’t pose any danger to humans. "The public health risk is very low and there is no risk to the food chain," she said, however, not having specified, what type of the virus was detected at the Yorkshire farm.

Bird flu can have fatal consequences for all bird species, and some of its strains can be highly contagious for people. H5N1 subtype claimed lives of about 400 people since it emerged in 2003, having a death rate of 60% among humans, according to WHO. H7N9 subtype was found in 2013 in China and killed more than 170 people since that time.

The case is reported to be the first in England since 2008. British officials set up an exclusion zone around the farm and started culling process as part of a complex of prevention and security measures.

On Sunday, a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu was also detected at a chicken farm in Netherlands. To prevent the disease from spreading, Dutch authorities prohibited transporting of poultry and eggs across the country’s regions and imposed ban on hunting.

Source - http://www.blackseagrain.net/