Newcastle Disease outbreak suspected in Jutland, Denmark - DENMARK - A suspected outbreak of Newcastle Disease in southern Jutland could cost 41,000 chickens their lives.

A large poultry farm near the village of Broager in southern Jutland is feared to be infected by Newcastle Disease, which devastated the poultry sector three years ago, costing the state and farmers almost DKK 200 million (EUR 26 million).

The Regional Veterinary and Food Control Centre in southern Jutland expected to have test results ready on Friday morning. Should they reveal an infection at the farm, the entire stock of 41,000 birds must be put out, and a ten-kilometre quarantine zone introduced, reaching across the German border.

The farm has been placed under public surveillance and banned from selling its production.

Newcastle Disease has not been diagnosed in Denmark since 2002, when it struck 135 farms across the country. Veterinarians then presumed that wild birds had spread the disease, which only affects birds and is unrelated to avian flu. The outbreak led to a temporary halt to all export of living birds and hatching eggs.

The outbreak cost public authorities DKK 90 million (EUR 12 million), while the poultry sector was expected to have suffered a loss of DKK 100 million (EUR 13 million) of lost market shares and destroyed production.

Other EU countries have reported similar outbreaks in recent years.

The Danish Food and Veterinary Authority said it did not consider the disease a danger to food safety, as the disease could not be transmitted to humans.

Since November 2004, farmers have been obligated to have their poultry vaccinated against the disease, but the chicken in southern Jutland had not yet received the vaccine.

Poultry farmers expect that the country's entire poultry stock will be vaccinated by 1 January 2006.

Source: Denmark Government - 21st October 2005