Prague, Dec. 5, (dpa/GNA) - The emergency slaughter of about 15,000 ducks at a Czech poultry farm started on Monday after an outbreak of bird flu, according to the state veterinary authority.
The H5N1 virus, a subtype of the influenza A virus, was detected at a farm in the small southern Czech town of Frahelz in the South Bohemian Region.
The farm previously had 22,000 ducks, but about 7,000 of them already succumbed to the disease in the last few days.
“This shows how aggressive the virus is and how the disease is spreading,” said public health officer Frantisek Kouba, according to the CTK news agency.
The ducks presumably contracted the virus from wild waterfowl.
A protection and surveillance zone with a radius of 3 kilometres has been established around the site of the infection.
GNA