Hungary destroys 9,000 flu-infected turkeys, no threat to humans

[November 04, 2016]  BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian food safety authority NEBIH on Friday said it had found traces of bird flu at a poultry farm in eastern Hungary and would destroy 9,000 turkeys to protect nearby populations from a strain it said was harmless to humans.

The farm, which is next to the Romanian border at Totkomlos, experienced a high level of infection and an elevated rate of expiration due to the H5N8 strain of the flu virus, NEBIH said.

It said the flu strain first caused an outbreak in Asia in early 2014 and appeared in Europe two years ago, adding that an earlier case was found in Hungary in February 2015.

(Reporting by Marton Dunai; Editing by Catherine Evans)

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