Erlangen, Germany - German officials were culling about 160,000 geese Sunday after the deadly H5N1 bird-flu virus was found in a poultry farm near the southern city of Erlangen. The slaughter was ordered after 400 geese were found dead in their compound on Friday. Tests by the Friedrich Loeffler Institute of Veterinary Medicine found the lethal strain in five of the birds.
The area around the farm was sealed off as officials investigated reports that the infected animals came from another poultry farm in the northern state of Lower Saxony.
The H5N1 strain of avian influenza is fatal to humans but cannot yet be transferred between humans. It has hit wild water-birds and some domestic poultry in other parts of Germany this year.
