An worker works on a rack of slaughtered geese at a poultry farm in Eugenie les Bains, France, January 24, 2017, as France scales again preventive slaughtering of geese to counter chook flu after the culling of 800,000 birds this month helped sluggish the unfold of the illness. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File photograph Acquire Licensing Rights
PARIS, Nov 28 (Reuters) – France has detected an outbreak of extremely pathogenic chook flu virus on a turkey farm within the northwest of the nation, the agriculture ministry mentioned on Tuesday, as a seasonal wave of infections spreads throughout Europe.
The outbreak within the Brittany area, France’s first farm case this autumn, occurred close to the place an contaminated wild chook was discovered, the ministry mentioned in a press release.
Several circumstances amongst wild birds have been recorded in recent days, it mentioned, including the federal government had raised its nationwide alert stage for chook flu to reasonable from negligible.
Poultry flocks in areas notably uncovered to contact with wild birds would now be confined indoors, the ministry mentioned.
Avian influenza, generally referred to as chook flu, has led to the culling of lots of of tens of millions birds prior to now years. It normally strikes in Europe throughout autumn and winter and has not too long ago been detected on farms in international locations together with Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Croatia and Hungary.
To counter the illness, which has disrupted the availability of poultry meat and eggs and despatched costs rocketing in elements of the world in recent years, France launched a vaccination marketing campaign towards chook flu in early October.
The French programme is being initially restricted to geese, that are probably the most vulnerable to the virus. Ducks accounted for under 8% of complete French poultry output in 2022.
Reporting by Gus Trompiz and Sybille de La Hamaide; Editing by Kirsten Donovan
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