Chinanews.com, The Hague, January 25th. The Dutch authorities reported on the 25th that an outbreak of bird flu broke out in Friesland, a large agricultural province in the north of the country, and more than 50,000 poultry were culled.

  According to the announcement issued by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality on the same day, a bird flu case was found in a chicken farm in Southwest Friesland, Friesland Province. To prevent the spread of the epidemic, about 57,000 broiler chickens were culled.

  The announcement stated that there are no other farms within a radius of 1 km and 3 km from the farm involved, so no epidemic prevention measures need to be taken; there are 10 farms within a radius of 10 km, and the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality has issued a "blockade order" to ban these 10 farms Farms transport products such as poultry, eggs, meat, fertilizers, etc., and people are not allowed to hunt in these areas.

  Friesland is the center of traditional agriculture and animal husbandry in the Netherlands. The well-known dairy breed Holstein cows originated from this province. However, in recent years, there have been many outbreaks of bird flu in Friesland, including a chicken farm suspected of being highly infected in July last year. Pathogenic avian influenza virus caused about 105,000 broilers to be culled.

  As a major exporter of poultry products in Europe, the Netherlands has more than 2,000 poultry and egg farms, with a net export of more than 6 billion eggs per year. However, since 2021, nearly 70 farms have had outbreaks of bird flu, and the number of poultry culled by the authorities exceeds 4 million.

  In addition to the "hardest hit" Netherlands, in October last year, the European Food Safety Agency and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control jointly issued a report stating that Europe is experiencing the largest bird flu epidemic in history, affecting 37 countries in Europe, regardless of the number of cases Or the scope of the epidemic has reached a "new high".

  The report also pointed out that despite the raging epidemic, no one has been found to be infected with the bird flu virus.

In general, except for farm workers and other people who have direct contact with infected animals, the risk of infection of other groups of people with avian influenza virus is low.

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