190,000 Birds Euthanized in the Netherlands to Avoid Bird Flu Outbreak

Several countries are fearing another possible pandemic as the H5N8 virus, also known as the bird flu, is spreading across the world like wildfire. Netherlands has reportedly euthanized more than 190,000 ducks in the country in hopes of containing the virus and preventing any possibility of an outbreak.

The particular virus strain has been reported in Asia in early 2014 but has taken two years to spread in Europe and the U.S. A report from New Scientist indicated that there has been an increase in the population of birds in Europe which suffer from the disease. Hundreds of thousands of birds are being killed to prevent a possible outbreak.

The population of birds with the disease has started to move from east to west since 2014. According to BBC, the long distance migration of wild birds throughout the globe has increased the speed of the spread of the virus. It is suspected that the disease has reached domesticated birds through the contamination from droppings from migrating wild birds.

Just last Thursday, South Korea has issued a nationwide warning to help contain the possible spread of the bird flu virus throughout the country. The entire country was alarmed when the cases of avian flu have dramatically increased in a matter of days. According to a report from Reuters, about 730,000 birds have been killed in South Korea alone to prevent the possible spread of the disease to humans.

So far, there had been no recorded cases of humans infected with the virus, and there are no indications yet that there is a possibility that this particular virus strain can harm people. However, the World Health Organization has not taken this lightly and still warned that human infection has a likelihood of occurring.