The European Commission has adopted protective measures to try to contain a bird flu outbreak after new cases were reported in the UK and the Netherlands.
The measures include killing animals in infected areas and banning sales of poultry products from those areas.
The Dutch government has reported the “highly contagious” H5N8 strain at a poultry farm there.
The UK reported a case at a duck farm in East Yorkshire, and the Commission said it was “probably identical”.
H5N8 can potentially affect humans.
EU officials say the outbreaks may be linked to bird flu recently found in Germany.
They say it could have been spread by migratory wild birds heading south for winter, but that tests are continuing to confirm any links between the three cases.
Three-day ban
The European Commission said in a statement that the UK and the Netherlands were already applying directives on culling affected poultry, prohibiting sales of affected poultry products and live birds, and establishing protection zones.
It said: “The measures aim at quickly bringing the disease under control and at preventing the spread of the highly pathogenic avian influenza within the affected member states, to other member states and to third countries.”
