Sept. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Dutch farmer Jan Hol says his chickens, forced indoors by government efforts to protect them from bird flu, may peck each other to death from anxiety.

``I have to give my chickens a lot of extra attention,'' said Hol, 63, who farms 8,000 free-range hens in the central village of Beneden-Leeuwen. ``I want to avoid the dangerous pecking.''

The Netherlands last month ordered its 5.6 million free- range and organically raised hens to be kept inside as the government tries to stem the spread of a deadly strain of bird flu from countries including Russia and Kazakhstan.

The 650 million-euro ($790 million) Dutch chicken industry is the only one among the 25 European Union members to keep birds isolated. The last bird flu outbreak in the country, in 2003, led to the slaughter of 25 million fowl, about a third of the total. The lockup may prompt fighting among the chickens and a mortality rate as high as 30 percent, said Thea Fiks-van Niekerk of Wageningen University & Research Centre.

``With confinement, the danger they'll start pecking each other is much higher,'' said Fiks-van Niekerk, part of the animal research group at the Dutch university, which is based in the city of Wageningen. ``If this happens, it will easily turn into cannibalism, with high mortality,'' she said Aug. 30.

Of the 5.6 million isolated birds, 600,000 are organically raised and produce eggs. The government measure may increase costs, said Chris Borren, the president of the Dutch Organic Poultry Association, based in the village of Bennekom.

More Tests

Dutch Minister of Agriculture Cees Veerman on Aug. 22 instituted the outdoors ban, which affects about 400 Dutch farms, because of concern migratory birds may bring the virus to the Netherlands. The country is home to 86 million chickens. Veerman didn't say how long the directive would stay in force.

Russia and Kazakhstan were added Aug. 8 to an EU list of nine nations from which poultry imports are banned after bird flu outbreaks. The EU said Aug. 25 it will closely monitor the situation to avert an outbreak. French authorities said on Aug. 30 the country will build up vaccine and medicine stocks.

The EU plans to carry out more sampling on migratory waterfowl that could host the virus. The bloc's annual budget for diseases control is about 300 million euros. It plans to make 1.2 million euros available for the additional testing of birds over the next 12 months.

``It is still very doubtful if migrating birds actually bring the virus with them to the Netherlands,'' said Borren.

`Permanent Risk'

Albert Osterhaus, head of the department of virology at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, disagrees. Osterhaus was the first to discover that a 1997 Hong Kong flu strain belonged to an avian influenza strain called H5N1, and that H5N1 can jump from chickens to humans, according to New Scientist.com. He said risks to the Netherlands are great.

``There is a permanent risk the annual migration of wild birds carrying the virus could infect free-range poultry,'' Osterhaus said in an interview on Aug. 30 ``We are very worried about this.''

Avian flu has infected more than 100 people in Asia and killed half of them since 2004. More than 140 million chickens have been slaughtered in Asia on concern about the H5N1 strain.

The virus may infect pigs in a mutated form, said Wageningen University's Fiks-van Niekerk. There is no record of infection in other animals, she said.

Osterhaus said the cost to the Netherlands of the 2003 bird flu outbreak, culling and related measures was 300 million euros, and the decision to confine chickens was the right one.

Dutch farmer Bram Kroesbergen, 57, from the village of Ede, in the central Netherlands, said while he understood the reasons for the confinement, poultry will suffer.

Three Roosters

``Chickens can get stressed out from sitting indoors all day,'' said Kroesbergen, who farms 3,000 organic hens. ``A lot of farmers will get into trouble when their chickens start pecking each other.''

Temperamentally, chickens can be excitable and aggressive, according to the Web site of the University of Florida. Temperament varies with ``management style,'' the site says.

In their 2002 study ``Comfortable Quarters for Chickens in Research Institutions,'' researchers at the University of Kassel's faculty of agriculture, in Germany, said chickens are ``easily frightened by sudden changes in their environment'' and may respond with panic reactions. An outdoors area is ``highly recommended,'' according to the study.

Farmer Hol offers some of his birds toys to keep them occupied. Among the favorite diversions: Coca-Cola bottles half filled with water which hang above the coops and rattle.

He's also throwing in other distractions.

``I have three roosters with them,'' Hol said. ``That may keep them calm.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Evalinde Eelens at eeelens@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 5, 2005 04:06 EDT