March 17, 2006

Netherlands begins vaccinating chickens

Dutch veterinarians begin the vaccination of chickens against bird flu on Thursday, the first such programme in the country.

Free range hens were the first to receive the vaccination.

The European Union has disapproved of vaccination throughout the 1990s. However, it relented in recent years after farmers demanded the right to vaccinate animals during outbreaks of swine fever and foot-and-mouth in cattle.

The European Commission (EC), allowed the Netherlands and France --Europe's largest poultry producers to vaccinate millions of commercial birds three weeks ago.

This was the first time the commission has endorsed a vaccination programme to fight against bird flu in the EU. The H5N1 bird flu strain has been detected in 11 countries in the EU, but not in the Netherlands.

The Dutch vaccination plan applies to the 1 million to 3 million hobby poultry and 5 million free-range laying hens in the country on a voluntary basis.

The Dutch authorities has ordered all commercial poultry to be confined indoors to prevent them from coming into contact with wild birds infected by H5N1.