Germany reports another case of bird flu on farm

HAMBURG (Reuters) - An outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu has been found on another farm in north Germany, authorities said on Wednesday.

The disease was confirmed on a farm with about 33,000 poultry in Harburg in the state of Lower Saxony, the state ministry of agriculture said.

It is the ninth case in Lower Saxony among farm, backyard and pet animals while 25 cases have been confirmed in wild birds in the state.

Bird flu, most often carried from one country to the other by migrating wild birds, has been spreading rapidly in Europe, raising concern in the poultry industry after previous outbreaks led to the culling of tens of millions of birds and international trade restrictions.

Outbreaks have been reported in the last week in countries including France, Croatia, Switzerland and Austria.

Germany has reported several outbreaks.

(Reporting by Michael Hogan, editing by Jason Neely)