Bird flu cases have been detected in 61 sites in France as at the 1st of January, the French Agriculture Ministry said on Sunday in a statement.
This was 40 more than the 21 outbreaks confirmed on the 29th of December.
The Ministry said in a statement that 48 of the 61 outbreaks were in Landes, a southwestern area that traditionally produces foie gras.
The area within which local authorities can order the preventive slaughter of birds around the affected sites has just been extended, according to a decree published on Sunday in the Official Gazette.
The preventive slaughter of healthy animals is denounced by farmers’ unions, which see it as both ineffective from a sanitary standpoint and morally unacceptable.
The Brussels Times
