Bird flu in ducks - initially 800,000 birds to be culled in France

Outbreak of bird flu in France has forced the authorities to take a decision to cull 800,000 birds in the first instance. Accordingly, huundreds of thousands of ducks are to be culled in three areas of France. The drastic measure will cover all free range ducks, plus geese, in the Gers, Landes and Hautes-Pyrenees areas.
The exercise will continue for more than two weeks. The areas that have been identified as affected are in southwestern France, where most foie gras - made from duck and goose liver - is produced.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 4 January 2017.

All birds will not be culled - an exception has been made for farms which confine their birds and run a full production cycle - from ducklings to end products. The virus has spread quickly over the last month and, the agricultural ministry of France has indicated that the principle is to quickly kill the species most affected to date by the virus.
Initially, 800,000 birds would be killed in the next week and more could be added if the virus can not be brought under control. The H5N8 strain of the virus has been discovered in several other European countries, and in Israel, in the last two months. It kills poultry but, it has not been detected in humans.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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