As the national reference laboratory, the Friedrich-Löffler-Institut (FLI) has detected the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus in a poultry farm in Kleve. This officially confirms the previous suspicion of an outbreak of avian influenza.
At the beginning of this week, there was a laboratory-confirmed suspected case on a farm in Kleve. In close consultation with the North Rhine-Westphalia State Agency for Nature, Environment and Consumer Protection (LANUV), the district of Kleve then had to order the culling of the entire livestock - around 16,000 animals in total. This was done last Tuesday, November 19, 2024. The majority of the animals were already sick and had severe symptoms. The immediate evacuation of the herd was therefore also necessary from an animal welfare perspective. The stables were then cleaned and disinfected.
Following confirmation of the outbreak by the FLI, the district of Kleve has now issued a new general ruling, which comes into force on November 21, 2024. To contain the risk of transmission, a protection zone has been established within a radius of three kilometers around the affected farm. The monitoring zone has a radius of ten kilometers. In both areas, it is now compulsory for poultry to be kept in isolation from wild birds and rodents. The birds kept must be kept in closed stables or under a protective device. This obligation applies to commercial and private keepers. In addition, kept birds may neither be brought into nor taken out of a livestock farm. The same applies to products and meat from slaughtered animals that could carry the virus. Farms must also carry out daily disinfection measures on all access and exit routes.
In the protection zone (three kilometers), even stricter hygiene measures will also apply, for example to disinfect the machines used.
A list of all measures can be found online in the general ruling at www.kreis-kleve.de/bekanntmachungen.
The spatial location of the protection and surveillance zones can also be seen on a section of the map.
Every owner of poultry is obliged to report their livestock to the animal disease fund in writing. If this has not yet been done in individual cases, the notification must be made as soon as possible. Access to the online portal is possible via https://nw.agrodata.de/newreg-nw.
Source: District of Kleve