The so-called highly pathogenic bird flu (which leads to serious illness or death of birds) is much more serious this year than in previous years: the virus continued to circulate in the summer. Nearly 5 million birds have been culled in the past year. The cost of fighting the virus has run into tens of millions of euros. Adema also announced a pen-keeping obligation last week, which means that both poultry farmers have to keep their animals indoors.
In addition, Adema wants to oblige poultry farmers from next year to come up with a plan in consultation with veterinarians to minimize the risk of contamination. Unorthodox measures are also being taken to keep the virus at bay. For example, experts see “evidence that the use of lasers can be effective in repelling birds around the farm”. Poultry farmers can make use of this within the applicable rules.
Vaccine
Poultry farmers themselves are hoping for a well-functioning flu vaccine. Adema also wants to speed up the process of arriving at a vaccine. He wants to map out whether vaccines are feasible, available, working and safe. In addition, the minister is in consultation with poultry farmers about the financial consequences of vaccines.
At the insistence of coalition party D66, the Ministry of Agriculture is working on guidelines for dealing with sick and dead (wild) birds, where the virus is also often found. The same party also wants to make it more difficult for poultry farms to establish themselves in areas where the risk of contamination is high. When there is a clear overview of these risk areas, Adema wants to look at the possibilities of “preventing” settlement or expansion here, according to the minister. “At the moment, neither I nor local authorities have the legal tools for this.”
Tens of millions
Adema emphasizes that zoonoses such as bird flu are also taken into account in the nitrogen approach.
Tens of millions of poultry animals are kept in the Netherlands. By far the largest group is chickens, of which about 100 million are kept in the Netherlands.