France plans to slaughter 600,000 birds in an effort to prevent the spread of bird flu by infecting flocks of ducks in part of the country, health officials said on Tuesday.
Nearly 200,000 poultry have already been slaughtered, said a farm ministry official, in an attempt to contain the H5N8 virus, which is not known to be transmissible to humans.
By January 1, France had confirmed 61 outbreaks of bird flu. Forty-eight of them were in the Landes region in the southwest, according to the finance ministry.
Slaughter includes preventive slaughter of birds in the areas around the outbreak to limit the transition to flocks of farms.
Landes ducks are used to supply the foie gras industry.
The health ministry said other parts of France appear to have the virus under control.
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