Bird flu found at Terschuur farm in heart of poultry industry

The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) has diagnosed bird flu at a laying hen farm in Terschuur, Gelderland. The 62,000 chickens on the farm will be culled, the Ministry of Agriculture reported.

Terschuur is located in the Gelderse Vallei, the heart of the poultry industry in the Netherlands. According to the Ministry, there are 182 poultry farms within a 10-kilometer radius of the infected farm.

All 182 farms in the area are banned from transporting chickens and eggs with immediate effect, to prevent the highly infectious disease from spreading. The NVWA is trying to determine the source of the Terschuur farm’s infection.

After an absence of about six months, bird flu returned to the Netherlands in October, when the disease was confirmed at a broiler breeder farm in Gasselternijveenschemond, near Stadskanaal in Drenthe.

The Ministry ordered all commercially held poultry to be caged on October 16 in an attempt to stop the spread of the disease, but there have been multiple cases since.