France has raised bird flu warnings after a highly contagious strain of the virus was detected on a farm in the Ardennes region, near the northern border with Belgium.
The French Ministry of Agriculture said it had immediately raised the level of risk to the country to “moderate”.
The ministry said that birds on farms and at home are quarantined in areas with an increased risk of infection.
The news of the infected birds came amid a statement from the French health authorities last week, when the end of the bird flu epidemic, which killed more than 3.5 million birds last winter, was officially announced.
A new highly contagious strain of bird flu, H5N8, has been found in private ownership where birds are not sold. All animals were killed to prevent new cases. Since the beginning of September, two cases of H5N8 have been reported in Belgium, and another case has been detected in Luxembourg.
Since the beginning of August, 25 cases of the virus in wild animals and poultry have been registered.
By increasing the level of risk from “minor” to “moderate”, France ordered all poultry to be kept indoors and issued an order banning all bird competitions. Animals in zoos that cannot be closed should also be vaccinated in accordance with established measures.
The ministry said any measures taken on Friday would be accompanied by “daily clinical monitoring on all farms.”
Between November and May, about 500 outbreaks of bird flu were recorded in poultry farms in France, mostly in the southwest.