About 2700 pheasants will be culled on a Danish poultry farm near the German border after bird flu was detected, the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration says.
The cull was ordered out of animal welfare concerns and to limit the risk of the spread of infection.
Bird-flu viruses only rarely infect humans.
The agency called on farmers and hobby breeders in the area to move their animals into covered enclosures and feed them there.
It also recommended that contact with wild animals be avoided and breeders should clean their clothes and boots before going to their birds.
The affected pheasant farm is located near the town of Tonder, just across the border with Germany.
A protection zone and a surveillance zone have been set up within a radius of 3km and 10km respectively.
Rules include a prohibition on poultry exhibitions and strict monitoring of the movements of poultry and poultry products.
The measures initially apply for 30 days.
The Danish agency believes the pheasants may have been infected by wild birds that stopped off in the area during their autumn migration southwards.
As the surveillance zone extends across the German border, the authorities in German state of Schleswig-Holstein have been informed so that they can take their own steps, the agency said.
Germany reported its own outbreak of bird flu virus on a poultry farm in the northern part of the country, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) said on Wednesday.
The outbreak killed five poultry among a flock of 24,000 on a farm in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern east of Hamburg, the Paris-based WOAH said in a report, citing German authorities.
Bird flu, which has led to the culling of hundreds of millions birds in the past years, usually strikes in Europe during autumn and winter.
It has recently been detected on farms in several countries including the Netherlands, Italy, Croatia and Hungary.
with Reuters
Australian Associated Press
