The culling of poultry is canceled due to the shortage of killing gas

Due to bird flu, so many poultry farms in the Netherlands have been culled that there was a shortage of CO2 gas this week. The gas is needed to kill chickens on infected poultry farms. Agriculture Minister Adema therefore decided not to allow the planned preventive killing in Lunteren. A unique situation that has never happened before.

On Friday a poultry farm in Lunteren where bird flu was diagnosed was culled. To prevent the virus from spreading to other farms, chickens are preemptively killed on all poultry farms within 1 kilometer of the site of infection. The sooner it happens, the less likely bird flu is to spread.

As there was not enough carbon dioxide available this week to kill the chickens, it took several days for the preventive culling in Lunteren to begin. No animals had gotten sick at the farms involved, so the poultry farmers filed a lawsuit with the Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal to stop preventive culling.

In vain, because the judge ruled that the killing must continue anyway. But as preventive culling of poultry is “a drastic and far-reaching measure”, the judge ruled that culling must be completed no more than 8 days after the first infection in Lunteren. It takes an average of up to nine days for birds to get sick if they are infected with bird flu.

Due to the shortage of CO2 gas, it would probably not be possible to clear all the companies involved before Saturday evening, so the operation will not go ahead. “The advantage of using the broad prior authorization tool no longer outweighs the disadvantages,” the minister said in a letter to the House of Representatives.

According to the minister, this situation is a “unique case”, which will have no consequences for preventive culling in other poultry farms.

‘Unsustainable bird flu situation’

Avian influenza has been circulating continuously in the Netherlands for a year. In other years, such as the influenza virus in humans, the season began in the fall and died out in the spring. This year the outbreaks will continue and new poultry farms will be culled almost every week.

Minister Adema defines the situation surrounding avian flu as unsustainable. For this reason, the minister is studying “how we can reduce the density of poultry in certain areas, so as not to have to repeat it in the future”.