France kills over 600,000 chickens and ducks over deadly bird flu infection

France has killed about 600,000 to 650,000 chickens, ducks, and other poultry over the previous month, authorities said on Friday, to contain a bird flu infection threatening to turn into the fourth significant outbreak in the country since 2015.

The Agriculture Ministry revealed infection cases have been confirmed at 26 production line ranches, mainly in the southwest — home to France’s worthwhile foie gras pate industry — just as cases in wild fowl and three at farms.

A few European nations are currently battling a profoundly infectious flu strain, H5N1, simply a year after a comparable infection wrecked herds.

Belgium and Britain have reported outbreaks, while Czech veterinarians said Wednesday that 80,000 birds would be culled at a single homestead where over 100,000 creatures have died from the infection since a week ago.

In France, the government requested ranchers in November to keep poultry indoors in a bid to stop the spread of the infection by transitory birds, however, the first case was identified soon thereafter, at a site in the north.

The first case to strike the southwest, where most outbreaks are presently found, came on December 16, the ministry said.

The previous winter over 500 ranches saw mass infections that provoked the culling of some 3.5 million birds, mainly ducks, prompting the government to burn through a huge number of euros in remuneration.

Poultry ranchers had as of now been hit by enormous bird flu outbreaks in the winters of 2015-16 and 2016-17.