Bird flu was diagnosed on Saturday at a broiler farm in Deurne. To prevent further spread of the virus, the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) will have approximately 162,000 broiler chickens culled.
A 10-kilometer zone was immediately established around the infected company. Within this zone there is a transport ban for birds, eggs, manure and used litter. There are three other poultry farms in the 1-kilometer zone around this infected location and seven poultry farms in the 3-kilometer zone.
The companies in the 1 and 3 kilometer zone are screened and then monitored for 10 days by means of carcass sampling and intensively monitored over the next two weeks by the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA).
Deurne is located about 10 kilometers from Ysselsteyn in Limburg (municipality of Venray), where an infection with the bird flu virus was detected on a poultry farm for the third time in a week on Friday.
There are 46 poultry farms in an area of 10 kilometers around the broiler farm in Deurne. A number of these were already in the restriction zone that was set up after the infections in Ysselsteyn and Veulen in recent days.
First case in Brabant
On December 10, bird flu was diagnosed in Brabant for the first time this autumn at a broiler farm in Uitwijk. To prevent further spread of the virus, around 80,000 chickens were culled there.
Strict national measures
Since mid-October, a national cage obligation has been in place throughout the Netherlands for commercially kept birds. Hobby chickens also need to be shielded. In addition, visits to poultry farms have been severely limited and all events involving birds, such as exhibitions and markets, have been banned since the beginning of December.
Research into possible spread
The NVWA has started a tracing investigation. This involves investigating whether animals, eggs or materials were transported to and from the company in the days before the contamination. If this reveals risks, additional measures may follow.