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Switzerland is banning chicken imports from Britain and the Netherlands, as they detected bird flu on three more farms. 

The move is in effect since Saturday and applies to live chickens and chicks as well as eggs from affected zones in the two countries, the Federal Office for Food Security and Veterinary Affairs said. 

Belgium meanwhile ordered poultry owners to confine their birds as a precautionary measure following the outbreak in neighboring Holland, according to a press release.

The Dutch economic affairs ministry confirmed that a second bird flu outbreak detected on Thursday on a farm at Ter Aar, close to the first case east of The Hague, was the highly pathogenic H5N8 strain, previously detected only in Asia, the press release said. 

Strains of avian influenza could be fatal for chickens. They pose a health threat to humans as well who can fall sick after handling infected poultry. 

Bird flu was detected on three other farms in and around Kamperveen, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of the first outbreaks, the Dutch economic affairs ministry said in a statement on Friday.

The birds on all three farms will be destroyed and the farms disinfected, the ministry said, with tests being carried out to establish if the strain is the highly infectious H5N8 strain.