Germany reports rare outbreak of H7N5 bird flu near Dutch border

Paris | Reuters—Germany reported a rare outbreak of highly pathogenic H7N5 bird flu on a farm in the western part of the country, near the border with the Netherlands, the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) said on Thursday.

The outbreak killed 6,000 out of a flock of 90,879 birds in the town of Bad Bentheim in Lower Saxony, Paris-based WOAH said, citing a report from German authorities. It was detected on June 29 and confirmed on July 2.

The H7N5 strain is different from the H5N1 one that decimated bird flocks and spread to mammal populations and some humans around the world.

It is the first outbreak anywhere of H7N5 on WOAH’s public records on global animal disease outbreaks, which goes back to 2005.

—Reporting for Reuters by Sybille de La Hamaide