A quarantine for poultry and domestic birds will be introduced throughout England on November 7 to prevent the spread of bird flu, the British government announced today.
Owners will have to keep their birds, regardless of species or size, indoors and follow strict biosecurity measures to protect them from disease, according to a statement from the UK's Department of the Environment.
Quarantine has already been imposed in several areas in England after health authorities determined the risk of bird flu among wild birds was "very high".
During October, more than 70 outbreaks of bird flu were found in England, and the disease was also detected in wild birds.
According to the European Food Safety Agency, 47,7 million poultry had to be killed in the last year.
A few cases of transmission of the virus to humans have been reported in China, Great Britain, the USA and Spain.
Bird flu is an infectious disease of birds that can be transmitted to humans. The highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus was first reported in 1997 in Hong Kong and has since spread outside of Asia. This disease is not transmitted from person to person, but people who are in direct contact with infected poultry are most at risk.
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