Dutch Poultry Forced Indoors as Bird Flu Spreads Around Europe
NETHERLANDS - The Dutch State Secretary for Economic Affairs, Martijn van Dam, has ordered poultry companies to keep birds indoors due to the threat of avian influenza.
10 November 2016
2 minute read
By: Mr van Dam also urged poultry companies to improve hygiene and biosecurity, including minimising the number of visitors to poultry farms.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza has been found in dead wild waterfowl in the Netherlands, and Germany, Austria, Hungary, Poland and Switzerland have also reported birds being killed by the H5N8 strain of the disease. In Hungary, the disease affected a turkey fattening farm.
The dead birds in the Netherlands, grebes and ducks found near Monnickendam in the Noord-Holland province, are being examined further to find out the strain of the disease.
Mr van Dam has requested active monitoring of some species of wild waterfowl to provide more information about the spread of H5N8 in the wild bird population.
