An obligation to keep and shield poultry and other bird species will be introduced for the whole of the Netherlands. Agriculture Minister Piet Adema (Christian Union) announced this on Wednesday in a statement letter to the House of Representatives. Not only commercial keepers have to keep their poultry indoors, but also hobby keepers. “Unfortunately, the high number of infections makes it clear that extra precaution is needed,” says Adema.
Monday wrote the European Infectious Disease Service ECDC that the current bird flu epidemic is the worst ever seen in Europe. The outbreak currently affects 37 countries and there have been nearly 2,500 outbreaks. A total of 48 million animals have already been culled at companies.
Outbreaks
Tuesday was in the Municipality of Kiel-Windeweer bird flu was also found at a poultry farm in Groningen. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, it is probably a very sickening variant. The more than 100,000 broilers at the location are culled to prevent the virus from spreading.
The poultry farm in Kiel-Windeweer is the fourth company in the province of Groningen where bird flu has been diagnosed within a few weeks. Last week, 28,000 chicks were culled in Zuidwolde and 15,000 laying hens were culled in Wildervank. Both companies probably also involved the highly pathogenic variant. In Nieuw-Weerdinge in Drenthe last 200,000 broilers were culled.
Since October last year, almost five million chickens, ducks and turkeys were killed because of an infection with bird flu. Nearly a million of these were culled as a precaution.
Also read: Bird flu is always around. So why are virologists holding their breath now?