Dutch poultry ordered indoors to prevent bird flu

The Dutch Agriculture Ministry has ordered all commercial poultry farmers to get their fowl indoors by Monday to prevent them from catching avian flu from wild birds.

The decision follows reports from the Russian government in the past month that a strain of bird flu is moving westward with migrating wild bird populations and will likely eventually reach Europe.

Scientists call the strain H5N1 and there are fears it could badly hurt Europe’s commercial poultry industry and even mutate to a more dangerous form.

Today’s order will affect about 5.5 million of the Netherlands’ 90 million chickens. In 2003, the Dutch killed more than 25 million chickens to stop a bird flu outbreak. Other European governments are also considering preventative measures.