The EU Commission has said it will adopt a decision with urgent interim protective measures in relation to a highly contagious Dutch bird flu outbreak.
The decision is set to describe the zones established by the Dutch authorities around an infected poultry farm where it will be forbidden to sell live poultry, eggs, poultry meat and other poultry products to other European Union member states and third countries.
Earlier, Dutch authorities discovered the bird flu identified at a poultry farm in the country was the H5N8 strain first detected in Europe less than two weeks ago.
The strain, which was found at a farm in northeastern Germany on 4 November, hit Asia severely, where it led to massive culling of animals in the countries affected.
As a result, Dutch officials have banned the transport of poultry in the Netherlands after the discovery of the strain of bird flu, which could jump to humans.
Though the strain has never been detected in humans, a spokesman for the Dutch government said the variant was lethal to birds and could infect humans who came into very close contact with them.
The poultry farm in the central Dutch village of Hekendorp is being cleared after the discovery of avian influenza.
The government said the 150,000 birds kept at the farm were not free range and were being destroyed in accordance with European rules on avian influenza.
In a statement, the government said the variant was fatal for chickens and that it was capable of jumping the species barrier to humans.
Previous outbreaks in Europe and Asia have proven highly contagious and have on occasion jumped the species barrier to humans, prompting fears of an epidemic.
10,000 chickens were destroyed in March after bird flu was found at a farm in the eastern Dutch province of Gelderland.
In September, Russia reported the first cases of the highly pathogenic H5N1 in nearly two years.
