Netherlands tracks the introduction and spread of the 2020-2021 bird flu outbreak

21 Sep 2021

The Dutch Ministry of Agriculture and a coalition of universities and consumer food agencies are examining how highly pathogenic bird flu was introduced to the Netherlands during the 2020 to 2021 season.

The group, which includes the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality, Utrecht University, the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA), Sovon, Wageningen Bioveterinary Research (WBVR) and Royal GD reviewed the results from source and contact research, estimates of the introduction time and virus similarities for the infected farms.