Netherlands orders all commercial poultry indoors as the new bird flu season opens with three outbreaks

The Netherlands imposed a nationwide housing order on 28 October 2026 after three highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreaks in a matter of days, the first of the 2026/2027 season, tightening the supply outlook in one of Europe's main poultry exporting countries.

Agriculture minister Silvio Erkens said the risk of further infection was significant and that birds must be kept indoors or otherwise shielded to limit the damage to animals and to farms. The order covers commercially kept chickens, turkeys and other poultry as well as ducks and geese. Hobby keepers, zoos and petting farms must screen their birds from wild birds, and shows, competitions and other poultry events are banned. Poultry may only be moved directly from farm to farm, subject to hygiene protocols and, in most cases, a veterinary inspection; ducks and turkeys going to slaughter are exempt from that inspection.

Avian influenza was confirmed on 26 October at a laying hen farm in Lutjegast, Groningen province, where the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) is culling 45,000 birds and a 10 km transport ban covers 21 other poultry holdings. A second case was confirmed at a care farm in Middelie, North Holland, and a third premises on 28 October.

• The order: nationwide, from 28 October 2026, covering commercial chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese; poultry gatherings banned.
• Movements: farm-to-farm only, with hygiene protocols and usually a veterinary inspection.
• First outbreak: laying hen farm at Lutjegast, Groningen, confirmed 26 October, 45,000 birds culled, 10 km transport ban over 21 other holdings.
• Second and third: a care farm at Middelie, North Holland, and a third premises confirmed 28 October.
• Regional pattern: Wageningen Bioveterinary Research says the virus did not disappear over the summer, with detections in wild birds, particularly geese, and recent outbreaks in neighbouring Belgium and Denmark. Virus typing is under way.

A housing order is a containment measure, not a trade ban: exports from the Netherlands continue under EU and third-country zoning rules, and it is the restriction zones around affected farms that determine which certificates can be issued. Even so, an outbreak at the start of the season in a country that exports poultry meat and hatching eggs across Europe and beyond is a supply and price signal for importers, and buyers relying on European origin should expect zone-level certificate checks to become stricter through the fourth quarter.

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Source: Reuters, 28 October 2026, reporting the Dutch government's nationwide housing order and the NVWA culls; eFeedLink, 28 October 2026, citing Wageningen Bioveterinary Research.