Wednesday, August 02, 2006
25,000 chickens culled on bird flu farm (Amsterdam)
Ministry of Agriculture officials began culling 25,000 chickens at a farm in the province of Gelderland at 2.30am on Wednesday morning. A mild form of bird flu was detected there.
The culling team followed advice from the Animal Protection Society (Dierenbescherming) on how best to gas the poultry. “A gas pipe will be positioned in the centre of the barn and branches will run from there to other parts of the building. This spreads the gas evenly,” a Ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday evening.
The farm will be fully disinfected after the culling and removal of the poultry.
The culling operation was
originally scheduled for Tuesday afternoon but was postponed when Dierenbescherming called for it to be done in a more humane way.