Laying hens from a poultry farm in Develier are suffering from Newcastle disease, the Federal Office for Food Safety and Veterinary Affairs (OSAV) said on Tuesday March 15. Animals infected with the highly contagious virus will be slaughtered. A surveillance zone around the farm has been set up.
Special requirements apply to holdings with poultry located close to the infected holding. Newcastle disease is transmissible through the air or by direct contact. It can also spread through people, poultry products or egg cartons.
Hens infected with the virus suffer from a reduction or a total interruption of laying and their eggs have too thin a shell and present color anomalies. Newcastle disease also affects wild birds. The origin of the disease is for the time being undetermined, indicates the OSAV.
The Veterinary Service of the canton of Jura prepares the killing of hens affected by the disease. The affected farm has been placed in receivership. Access to the henhouses is limited to persons in charge of the care of the animals and collaborators of the veterinary service.
A protection zone of about three kilometers around the affected farm has been established, as well as a surveillance zone of about ten kilometers. The last case of Newcastle disease was recorded in the canton of Zurich last January. Switzerland had been spared the disease since 2017.
The disease is rarely transmitted to humans. If so, the affected person may develop conjunctivitis. The consumption of poultry and eggs is without risk, specifies the FSVO.
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