Bird flu is spreading again in the Netherlands. At the beginning of this month, 71,000 chickens had to be culled from a poultry farm in Gasselternijveenschemond due to an outbreak. The infectious disease is being diagnosed in more and more places in the country, including in wild birds.
The bird species in Flevoland where the virus has been detected, such as the greylag goose, the barnacle goose and the Egyptian goose, also occur in the Drenthe nature reserve. There have been no infections so far. “But that is a matter of time,” says ranger of Natuurmonumenten Bart Zwiers.
Zwiers expects that the virus will also ‘break loose’ again in De Onlanden. “Bird flu will never go away from the world. There is always a new variant that spreads to new bird species. Because there are always new variants, no immunity will develop.”
The greatest danger is in bird colonies that live close together and where the virus can spread quickly. “It’s a huge problem when the disease is diagnosed in a colony.” In 2023, this happened in tern colonies and black-headed gulls. Zwiers then spent weeks clearing out dead birds.
“If you see a dead bird and you think it has bird flu, we send the bird for examination,” says Zwiers. According to the ranger, the symptoms include paralysis or the head being in a strange position.
According to Zwiers, bird flu almost always occurs in poultry farms, where large numbers of birds live close together. Circumstances where bird flu spreads more quickly than in nature, for example. “That is something that still stands in my way. It is not something that comes from nature.”
The government has started a trial on a poultry farm where chicks receive a vaccination against bird flu, but this will run until early 2027. For the rest, they focus more on measures in the event of an outbreak rather than prevention.