Netherlands culls 300,000 chickens after bird flu outbreak

Dutch health authorities on Thursday culled some 300,000 chickens after the biggest outbreak of bird flu highly contagious this year, stating that the ongoing epidemic has so far killed nearly six million birds.

The last outbreak of strain H5 The highly contagious virus affected a chicken farm in Heythuysen, in the province of Limburg, the Dutch food safety agency NVWA reported.

We have immediately banned the transport” of all poultry products, the NVWA said, adding that the decision included eggs, poultry meat and manure.

Five other poultry farms within a five-kilometre radius “are being tested and will be monitored for bird flu over the next two weeks,” the agency said in a statement.

Dutch authorities said on Thursday they had culled some 5.8 million birds.including chickens, turkeys and waterfowl, in 98 locations across the country since the outbreak of the new strain of bird flu was first detected in October last year.

The Dutch Minister of Agriculture, Piet Adema, declared last week in a letter to Parliament that “this situation is not sustainable”.

“Not for the animals, not for the poultry farmers, not for society. Therefore we must intensify our approach to bird flu,” he stressed.

The country has mandated that all poultry be kept indoors from Oct. 5 in a bid to curb the virus.