Dutch poultry farmers have to house animals because of bird flu...

Commercial poultry farmers in the Netherlands must keep their animals indoors from Friday midnight. Minister Carola Schouten (Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality) decided on a compulsory shelter after six dead swans were found near Kockengen in Utrecht. Two of the six were found to have had bird flu.

According to the minister, the obligation to keep a house is necessary because experts fear that poultry will become infected with the virus. Duck farms must also properly store the bedding in stables so that wild birds cannot reach it.

When sprinkling in farms, poultry farmers must prevent other animals from entering the house.

The disease has now also been diagnosed in a dead wigeon. Research has yet to reveal whether it is the same virus as the swans, which had the highly contagious variant H5N8.

The two mute swans in Utrecht have probably become infected because migratory birds from Russia have brought the bird flu virus with them. Birds with bird flu have been reported several times in Russia.

Many different variants of bird flu

Bird flu or avian influenza comes in many different variants. There are mild, low pathogenic variants (LPAI) and dangerous, highly contagious highly pathogenic versions (HPAI). (Classical) avian influenza occurs when many birds become infected with a dangerous variant at the same time and die.

Birds can pass on the avian flu virus to each other through respiration, eye fluid and manure. Chickens and turkeys are the most susceptible to contamination. People and commercial transports can also spread the virus. Travelers can, for example, already do this via a leftover bird droppings under their shoes.

The avian flu virus can also infect humans and mammals such as cats, pigs and tigers. However, that doesn’t happen often

Poultry sector was previously affected by avian flu

In 2003, the Dutch poultry sector was hit hard by H7N7 avian influenza. Chickens, turkeys and ducks were killed at 1,349 poultry farms. A total of 30.7 million agricultural and hobby animals have been culled.

Bird flu of the H5N8 type was found in four places in 2014. After these outbreaks, the then cabinet divided the country into four regions in order to contain the bird flu outbreak as much as possible. In the years that followed, the virus appeared regularly, but the infection could each time be limited to a few companies at most.