France reports bird flu on turkey farm as disease spreads in Europe

Europe Bird Flu: France had raised its alert level for bird flu to moderate from negligible.

France has detected an outbreak of highly pathogenic bird flu virus on a turkey farm in the northwest of the country, the agriculture ministry said on Tuesday, as a seasonal wave of infections spreads across Europe.

Bird flu: The virus generally occurs among wild aquatic birds and can infect domestic poultry, other birds, and animals. (PTI)

The outbreak on a farm in the Brittany region followed cases among wild birds in recent days, it said, adding France had raised its alert level for bird flu to moderate from negligible.

Bird flu, which has led to the culling of hundreds of millions birds in the past years, usually strikes in Europe during autumn and winter. It has recently been detected on farms in several countries including Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Croatia and Hungary.