Due to the increasing number of bird flu infections, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature has immediately imposed a national housing obligation for poultry. The ministry announced this a press release. The decision follows an infection at a poultry farm in Gasselternijveenschemond, Drenthe, near Stadskanaal.
The first infection since March was diagnosed there earlier this month. The 71,000 chickens on the site were culled by the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA). There was also a transport ban for transporters of poultry and eggs throughout the entire ten-kilometer zone.
The national obligation to keep cages is “a severe measure for keepers of poultry with outdoor access and hobby keepers, but the measure is necessary for the prevention of outbreaks,” the ministry writes. “The safety of our animals comes first.”
The risk of contamination of a poultry farm in the Netherlands is now estimated at ‘moderate’. The ministry hopes to limit the spread with the shelter-in-place requirement. The ministry is “closely monitoring” developments, it writes in the press release. Poultry farmers and keepers of other bird species must also remain alert and report suspicions to the NVWA as quickly as possible.
The last national lockdown obligation came into effect in November last year. Even then, Dutch livestock farmers had to keep poultry indoors. It was only in the summer of this year that the last local shelter-in-place orders were lifted.
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