The Netherlands kills 1.9L chickens over “highly contagious bird flu strain”

Dutch authorities have killed over 190,000 chickens after a highly contagious strain of bird flu broke out at least two poultry farms, the agriculture ministry said. Health workers slaughtered around 100,000 hens at a poultry farm at Hekendorp outside Gouda while 90,000 chicks at Witmarsum, in northern Friesland. The agriculture ministry said that In both cases a highly contagious strain of H5 variant was suspected and both the farms were cleared to prevent any further transmission of the disease. There were no other farms within a one-kilometer radius of the outbreak. The Dutch government has previously culled mink.