All Netherlands poultry caged
All poultry farmers in the Netherlands have been ordered to keep their birds inside, following an outbreak of the highly contagious bird flu strain at an organic poultry farm in Flevoland. All 36,000 chickens at the Zeewolde farm were destroyed to prevent the disease from spreading by the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA).
Caretaker agriculture minister Carola Schouten imposed the measure with immediate effect from noon on Tuesday because of a rise in the number of dead wild birds in the north of the country.
There are another six poultry farms within three kilometres of the affected farm which are also being checked for bird flu, while transport of poultry, eggs, manure and feed has been banned.
The Ministry also called on Netherlands residents to report any dead wild birds they come across so that these can be tested for bird flu. Information about how to report can be found on the NVWA website.
