France raises bird flu alert level

The decision to change the risk level was made due to an increase in the number of highly pathogenic avian influenza cases in several neighboring countries, raising concerns about the possibility of migratory birds carrying the virus as they pass through France, the French Ministry of Agriculture said. Since the beginning of the summer, four outbreaks of avian influenza have been recorded on farms in France alone. Earlier this month, France also launched a second vaccination campaign for duck farms with more than 250 birds. The first vaccination campaign took place last year and achieved positive results in efforts to prevent the spread of avian influenza. More and more European countries have reported cases of avian influenza, and one of the countries that has had to cull millions of poultry due to outbreaks is Germany. In July, the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) reported a rare outbreak of avian influenza caused by the highly pathogenic H7N5 strain in western ...