March 24, 2006

Dutch poultry vaccination finds few takers

One week after the announcement that Dutch poultry farmers could now choose to vaccinate their animals against bird flu, only a handful have done so.

Out of the 100,000 hobby farmers, only 99 have registered, according to Nynke van der Zee of the Dutch ministry of agriculture. Only one commercial poultry farmer chose to vaccinate his flock.

There are five million commercially raised free-range chickens and three million hobby chickens in the Netherlands.

The vaccination costs between US$10 and US$19 a bird.

Farmers are irked by the cost of vaccination, the amount of red tape and the fact that there is no guarantee the animals will not be culled if bird flu does reach the Netherlands, said Van der Zee.

The EU approved a French and Dutch plan to vaccinate their domestic fowl against bird flu in February.

The Dutch have already ordered all poultry to be kept indoors to avoid contamination. Farmers who raise free-range chickens must have them vaccinated or kept indoors.