Emergency measures have been taken after an outbreak of bird flu was detected in two farms in northern Belgium, Belgian media reported on Tuesday.

Control tests showed last Friday that some ducks and geese in a farm in Bocholt, which borders the Netherlands, were infected with the H5 bird flu virus. The same virus was also detected in a farm in Buggenhout in the province of East Flanders.

The H5 virus is not dangerous to human beings and is different from the H5N1 variant, which has killed more than 200 people since it surfaced in 2003.

The Belgian Federal Food Agency, which supervises the safety of the food chain, has ordered emergency measures to be taken in the two farms and surrounding areas.

Some 5,000 animals had to be slaughtered as a precautionary measure and all poultry within a radius of one kilometer of the farms must be kept indoors. Transport of poultry is forbidden for 21 days.