THE NETHERLANDS: AUTHORITIES START WITH A MASS CHICKEN CULL AFTER THE OUTBREAK OF A HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS BIRD DISEASE

Record ID: 584836

  • Title: THE NETHERLANDS: AUTHORITIES START WITH A MASS CHICKEN CULL AFTER THE OUTBREAK OF A HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS BIRD DISEASE
  • Date: 3rd March 2003
  • Summary: (U7) LAREN, THE NETHERLANDS (MARCH 3, 2003) (REUTERS ACCESS ALL) 1. CU CHICKEN STANDING IN FRONT OF BARN 0.07 2. SLV POLICE BLOCKING ROAD TO CHICKEN FARM WITH CHICKEN FLU 0.13 3. LV MAN PUTTING ON PLASTIC SUIT 0.19 4. LV TRUCK ON ROAD IN FRONT OF FARM 0.31 5. LV CULLING TEAM WALKING AROUND FARM 0.40 6. LV MAN SPRAYING WATER 0.50 7. LV/SLV FARM/TRUCK DUMPING DEAD CHICKEN INTO TRUCK (2 SHOTS) 1.23 (U7) RENSWOUDE, THE NETHERLANDS (MARCH 3, 2003) (REUTERS ACCESS ALL) 8. CU SIGN ON TREE WARNING OF INFECTION 1.29 9. SLV CHICKEN FARMER RIEN SCHIMMEL WALKING OUT OF HIS BARN 1.43 10. MCU (Dutch) CHICKEN FARMER RIEN SCHIMMEL SAYING: "Psychologically it is difficult and financially it will be difficult as well, because it will cost a lot of money. They say they will not reimburse for the dead chickens, and I have a lot of dead chickens, so I want to get any money for them. It is a very strange experience to see all these chickens die in just tree days. I have never experienced that before to see all your chickens die over three days. It is almost impossible to understand how that can happen." 2.17 11. SLV DAUGHTER OF SCHIMMEL COMING HOME FROM SCHOOL, PUTTING BIKE IN BARN 2.25 12. SV SCHIMMEL STANDING BY STONE STATUE OF CHICKEN 2.35 13. LV TWO CHICKENS IN FIELD 2.42 14. PAN EXTERIOR CHICKEN FARM 2.55 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 18th March 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LAREN AND RENSWOUDE, THE NETHERLANDS
  • Country: Netherlands
  • Reuters ID: LVACUSR7PL7JG8VUTIM7DNMD0OEM
  • Story Text: Authorities in the Netherlands have made a start with a
    mass chicken cull after the outbreak of a highly contagious
    bird disease in the heart of the country's poultry industry.



    To prevent a further spread of the highly contagious
    and usually fatal bird flu or avian influenza, the Dutch
    Agricultural Ministry on Monday (March 3) began to cull
    thousands of chickens at a farm in Laren in the east of the
    Netherlands.

    The only way to eradiate the disease quickly in commercial
    poultry is by destroying infected flocks and imposing strict
    quarantine.

    Dutch authorities use Carbondioxide to gas the chickens.

    Flocks of infected farms and businesses within a
    one-kilometre radius will also be killed.

    The number of infected farms on Monday rose to 17, after
    the agriculture ministry announced on Saturday it was
    investigating 'serious suspicions' after six poultry farms
    were infected with bird flu.

    Precautionary measures were imposed in a 10 kilometre zone
    surrounding the farms.

    Those measures included a nationwide transport ban on poultry
    and poultry products.

    Most of the infected farms are in Gelderland province,
    the centre of the Duch intensive poultry industry.

    One of the chicken farmers whose live-stock will have to
    be slaughtered is Rien Schimmel. Schimmel has a total of 28
    000 chickens in his farm, but some 6 000 have already died.

    Schimmel is now waiting for authorities to come and kill
    the remaining ones.

    "Psychologically it is difficult and financially it will be
    difficult as well, because it will cost a lot of money. They
    say they will not reimburse me for the dead chickens, and I
    have a lot of dead chickens, so I want to get any money for
    them. It is a very strange experience to see all these
    chickens die in just three days. I have never experienced that
    before to see all your chickens die over three days. It is
    almost impossible to understand how that can happen," Schimmel
    said.

    The poultry industry is big business in the Netherlands
    with 54.7 million chickens - a record number - being raised
    last year on 1,100 farms, according to the national statistic
    office CBS.

    Some 67 percent of those birds were raised on large-scale
    farms which produce over 50,000 birds annually.

    The infected farms are in or near Barneveld, some 50
    kilometres east of Amsterdam, one of the country's main
    poultry breeding areas, with a population of 3.2 million
    chickens.

    Bird (avian) flu is a virus which is deadly for poultry,
    and one strain of the disease jumped to humans in Hong Kong
    for the first time last year.

    However, the suspected strain found in the Netherlands is
    not the same as the Hong Kong variant.




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