4.5 million animals culled in bird flu cases this year; 4th case in Groningen 3 weeks

Europe is in the midst of the worst bird flu epidemic in 20 years, the European health service ECDC reported. In the Netherlands alone, over 4.5 million chicks and other birds have been culled in the past year, NOS reports.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Nature, and Food Quality reported the latest case on Tuesday at a company in Kiel-Windeweer in the province of Groningen. It is the fourth bird flu case in Groningen in three weeks.

The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NWVA) culled 100,000 broiler chickens at the Kiel-Windeweer location. There are no other poultry farms in a 1-kilometer radius around the infected farm. One poultry farm is within 3 kilometers. The NVWA will screen that company for bird flu.

In the past three weeks, the NVWA culled thousands of birds in Groningen due to bird flu - 28,000 in Zuidwolde and 15,000 in Wildervank last week, and 38,000 in Oldekerk the week before.

Just 30 kilometers away from Wildevank, in Nieuw-Weerdinge in Drenthe, the NVWA culled over 200,000 broiler chickens last week - the largest culling in the Netherlands to date.

The current bird flu epidemic involves a highly pathogenic strain of the virus. It has spread across 37 European countries, from Spitsbergen in Norway to Ukraine.