Duck stocks at two more German poultry farms are to be destroyed as health officials try to rein in the spread of the deadly H5N1 avian influenza virus.
After last month's kill of 160,000 farm ducks and a three-day slaughter up to Monday of 205,000 ducks, health officials said Wednesday that 41,000 birds on a duck farm near Dietersburg in Bavaria state would also be killed.
A H5-type virus had been found in tissue samples from the farm and the stock would be destroyed as a precaution.
The owners of another poultry farm, in Dingolfing-Landau county in the same state, would receive an order shortly to destroy a further 26,000 ducks, probably on Friday.
Officials fear the virus has been spread by trading in live ducks between area farms.
The H5N1 virus, which can be fatal to humans, was believed to have reached the area in migratory wild water-birds. The fight against its spread is driven by the fear that the virus could mutate and possibly cause massive loss of human life worldwide. dpa jbp sc
