August 3, 2006

Dutch cull chickens to stop bird flu spread
 

Dutch authorities culled 25,000 chickens at a farm infected with a low-pathogenic H7 bird flu strain on Wednesday (Aug 2) and sealed off another 130 farms to prevent a major outbreak.

The virus was first reported on Tuesday (Aug 1) in the central region of Gelderse Vallei.

A spokeswoman for the Dutch Agriculture Ministry said all 25,000 birds at the farm had been culled. Authorities took samples of chickens from surrounding farms for testing and the first results are expected on Friday (Aug 4), she said.

Authorities in the Netherlands set up a 3-km (1.5-mile) safety zone around the infected farm and temporarily sealed off 130 poultry farms inside the zone. Movement of live birds, meat, eggs and other live animals in and out the safety zone were banned.

Authorities said strict measures were needed because the detected H7 strain might mutate into a more aggressive form.

The main Dutch poultry farmers union said they were confident that the virus would not be allowed to spread and did not expect a negative impact on exports.

Farmers say they do not expect any import bans as they believed the case was not an outbreak, but an isolated case. 

A 2003 outbreak caused the Dutch poultry sector up to EUR 500 million in losses. So far, the Netherlands has been spared the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain found in several other European Union countries.