With just days to go before Christmas, government officials in the German State of Lower Saxony have confirmed that H5N8 bird flu has been detected on a turkey farm in the region.

Authorities announced yesterday that birds on the farm will be culled and restrictions have been put in place on movement of birds in Cloppenberg, where the outbreak was discovered on Monday, and in neighbouring counties.

Lower Saxony's agriculture minister Christian Meyer urged poultry farmers to remain vigilant and demanded strict adherence to biosecurity measures. The minister added that, in addition to the 19,000 turkeys at the farm in Cloppenberg, poultry flocks within a one kilometer radius of the farm will also be destroyed.

The detection of bird flu in the North-Western state follows an outbreak in the East of the country on 4^th November, and the detection of H5N8 in a wild bird later in the month.

The strain of flu is the same as that seen in outbreaks in the UK, Netherlands and in the other German cases over the past few weeks. Due to the distances between the outbreaks, the EU Commission has suggested that migrating wild birds could be behind the infections.  

Though H5N8 is lethal and extremely contagious for birds, the outbreaks are not thought to pose a threat to humans.

Turkey may not be Germans' bird of choice for Christmas dinner, but the outbreak is of great concern to the authorities, as Lower Saxony is the heartland of Germany's poultry industry. Many keepers have kept their birds indoors since the first bird flu outbreaks last month, according to state farming minister Christian Meyer.