SOFIA, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BFSA) on Thursday reported a second outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu within a month.
The virus was confirmed on Wednesday in a duck-breeding farm in the village of Zimnitsa, some 300 km east of Sofia, the agency said in a statement on its website.
All measures have been taken immediately to eradicate the outbreak. In particular, the 6,000 ducks in the farm would be culled, the statement said.
Meanwhile, a three-kilometer protection zone and a 10-km observation area around the duck farm have been set up, with a ban on the trade and movement of domestic and wild birds.
In addition, the authorities would carry out clinical examinations in the poultry farms located in the observation area and verify the biosecurity measures there, the statement said.
On March 5, the BFSA reported an H5N8 outbreak in a farm in the town of General Toshevo, some 500 km northeast of Sofia, and the 140,000 hens on the farm were culled.
In late 2016 and early 2017, a wave of bird flu hit the Balkan country, affecting 116,308 poultry in 26 outbreaks located in nine provinces.