Health risks around livestock farms 2025: Part I

Evidence is sufficient to conclude that a causal relationship is likely to exist between living in the vicinity of goat farms and pneumonia. This is the conclusion that the Health Council of the Netherlands draws in a first partial advisory report that was presented today to the Ministers of Health, Welfare and Sport and of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature.

Research within the Livestock Farming and Health of Local Residents programme (Veehouderij en Gezondheid Omwonenden, VGO) has shown that people who live near goat farms are more likely to contract pneumonia. In 2018, the Health Council concluded that the evidence was suggestive of a causal relationship, but that more research was needed. Early 2025, the results of the third VGO study were published, including data obtained from additional regions in the Netherlands. As a result of this and as a basis for follow-up steps, the Ministers of VWS and LVVN have asked the Health Council to assess whether there is a causal relationship.

The Health Council committee on Livestock Farming and Health, with experts from different disciplines, assessed the weight of the evidence for a causal relationship on the basis of the available scientific information. The committee considers the evidence for a causal relationship to be more substantial than in 2018, and now concludes that the relationship between living in the vicinity of goat farms and pneumonia is likely to be causal. The committee also considered potential biological mechanisms of action. The committee identified a plausible biological mechanism of action by which pneumonia is not so much the result of infection with a specific pathogen originating from goat farms, but rather of a combination of factors. Specific characteristics of goat farms and susceptibility to pneumonia play a role in this.

According to the committee, a probable causal relationship is sufficient reason to take measures to limit the health risks for residents in the vicinity of goat farms, on the basis of the precautionary principle. To determine which types of measures are appropriate and effective, the committee will focus on the nature and severity of the health impact in the second partial advisory report. This report will be published by the end of this year.