THE HAGUE, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) — Bird flu has been detected at a small-scale poultry farm in Assendelft, a village in the province of North Holland, the Dutch government said on Friday, the latest in a series of outbreaks affecting the country in recent weeks.
According to an official news release, about 220 birds at the location will be culled by the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) to prevent the virus from spreading. An immediate transport ban has been imposed throughout a 10-km restriction zone around the infected farm.
The NVWA is conducting a tracing investigation to identify any risky contacts, including the movement of products or poultry to and from the farm before the infection was reported.
This incident is part of a wider pattern of infections across the Netherlands in recent weeks. Bird flu was confirmed at poultry farms in the provinces of Gelderland, Flevoland, and Friesland. Tens of thousands of chickens have been culled.
Nationwide confinement measures have been in effect since Oct. 16, 2025, requiring all commercially kept poultry to be housed indoors and non-commercially kept risk birds to be shielded from contact with wild birds.
