France has detected a case of highly contagious H5N8 bird flu on a duck farm in the southwest, the first on-farm outbreak of the virus in the European Union's biggest poultry breeder, the agriculture ministry said on Friday, reports Reuters.
The outbreak follows a case of H5N8 confirmed among wild ducks in northern France this week and is the latest of a series of outbreaks in Europe.
The virus killed 2,000 out of a flock of 5,000 ducks on a farm in the Tarn region, and the remaining birds are to be culled as part of preventative measures, the ministry said in a statement.
The new case means France will not be able to regain its international status as being free of highly pathogenic avian flu, a status it aimed to recover on Dec. 3 if no further cases had been found following the wild bird outbreak.
France, which has the largest poultry flock in the EU, is recovering from a severe bird flu epidemic in the southwest earlier this year, which led to a halting of duck and geese output in the foie gras-producing region and import restrictions from trading partners.