THE HAGUE - Bird flu has been detected at an egg farm in the northern village of Drogeham, prompting the culling of all 117,000 birds on-site, the Dutch government said on Friday night.

This is the latest of a series of outbreaks hitting the country's poultry sector, coming just hours after authorities confirmed a separate outbreak at a small-scale farm in Assendelft, North Holland, where around 220 birds were set to be culled.

To contain the highly pathogenic virus, a 10-km transport ban has been imposed around the Drogeham farm, covering poultry, eggs, manure and bedding materials. The zone nearly overlaps with one established on Nov 7, when a nearby farm also tested positive and was culled.

One other poultry farm lies within 1 km of the latest site, while three more are within 3 km. All were screened last week and will be monitored over the next 14 days, the government said in a statement.

The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) is carrying out a tracing investigation to identify risky contacts linked to the farm.

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The Netherlands has been grappling with repeated avian flu cases in recent weeks. Bird flu has been confirmed at poultry farms in the provinces of Gelderland, Flevoland and Friesland, leading to the culling of tens of thousands of chickens.

Nationwide confinement measures have been in effect since Oct 16, 2025, requiring all commercially kept poultry to be housed indoors and non-commercially kept risk birds to be shielded from contact with wild birds.