Described by the media as the worst epidemic of its kind ever to hit Europe, new outbreak of highly contagious H5N1 avian influenza, also known as bird flu, was registered in the Netherlands yesterday.
According to Dutch Agriculture Ministry,77,000 chickens from the hen farm located in the small town of Putten in the north of the country, will now be culled.
The Netherlands’ authorities have registered more than 20 outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza on poultry farms across the EU country since late October of 2021.
Data from Wageningen University suggested that 1.5 million chickens, ducks and turkeys have been disposed of in the drive to stop the infection, which has so far been unsuccessful.
The worst cases of bird flu were reported in early January, when 222,000 chickens had to be culled in Blija and another 189,000 in Bentelo.
Dutch scientists have blamed migratory birds for bringing the highly contagious HPAI H5N1 viruses into the country.
According to Wageningen University, the types of bird flu currently found in the Netherlands “are not related to the Asian H5N1 strains that can infect humans.”