France plans to slaughter 600,000 birds in an effort to prevent the spread of ducks infecting bird flu in parts of the country, health officials said on Tuesday.
Nearly 200,000 birds have already been slaughtered, a farm ministry official said in an attempt to contain the H5N8 virus, which is not known to be transmissible to humans.
As of January 1, France has confirmed 61 outbreaks of bird flu. Forty-eight of them were in the southwestern Landes region, according to the farm ministry.
The afforestation includes the preventive killing of birds in the areas around the outbreak to limit the transition to farm herds.
Duck farming in the Landes is used to supply the foie gras industry.
The health ministry said other parts of France appeared to have the virus under control.
With Post threads