Chickens from a poultry farm are going outside again in Winkel, Netherlands, on April 29, 2020 after health measures were introduced in February, following a case of bird flu in a turkey farm in Germany near the Groningen (Dutch northern province) border. (Photo by Olaf KRAAK / ANP / AFP) / Netherlands OUT
AMSTERDAM — Authorities discovered an outbreak of a highly-contagious strain of bird flu at a farm in the Netherlands and said they would cull about 170,000 chickens, the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
Nearby farms in the province of Noord Holland will be sealed off while tests for the H5N1 virus are conducted and to establish whether it has spread, the ministry said.
Hundreds of thousands of chickens, ducks, turkeys and dozens of wild birds have been culled in the Netherlands since outbreaks of the disease began in 2021.