March 28, 2011

Dutch to cull hens after detection of bird flu strain

About 127,500 egg-laying hens will be culled after the H7 bird flu strain was detected in a farm in the Netherlands, said local authorities.

The H7 bird flu virus was reported at a farm in the village of Schore in Zeeland province, around 170 kilometres south-west of Amsterdam near the border with Belgium, the Dutch ministry for economic affairs, agriculture and innovation said. Authorities imposed a ban on transporting poultry and eggs within one kilometre radius of the farm.

Tests revealed that the H7 strain was low-pathogenic. A low-pathogenic variant can mutate into the more dangerous high-pathogenic form, which can kill large numbers of birds and can occasionally infect people, although it is rarely fatal in humans. European regulations state that birds at a farm where either strain is detected must be culled, said the Dutch government.

According to government figures in 2009, there are approximately 32 million egg-laying hens in the Netherlands, and 46 million chickens grown for meat production. The Netherlands produces around 9.7 billion eggs annually, accounting for more than 7% of the EU's production. Its biggest export market is Germany, which buys 2/3 of its egg exports.

The most devastating outbreak of the H7N7 avian flu strain in the Netherlands in 2003 led to the culling of 30 million birds, about a third of the nation's poultry.