Belgium Battles Bird Flu: Mass Chicken Culling Underway

Belgium plans to cull 55,000 chickens in response to an H5N1 bird flu outbreak near its French border. Overlapping zones established for outbreak control also extend into France. The European Food Safety Authority has noted an unprecedented spread of bird flu across Europe, paralleled by an outbreak in Israel.

In a bid to control the spread of the highly infectious H5N1 bird flu, Belgium announced the culling of approximately 55,000 chickens. The outbreak has been identified in a western province close to the French border, as reported by the federal food safety agency, AFSCA, on Friday.

The move is part of a broader effort to manage the disease, with protection and surveillance zones overlapping existing areas marked due to a similar outbreak last month. Some of these zones extend into neighboring France, intensifying cross-border biosecurity measures.

The European Food Safety Authority highlighted in December a concerning trend of widespread bird flu outbreaks among wild birds across Europe. This early and robust wave of infection is echoed by Israel's recent report of an H5N1 case on a farm, signaling a broader regional threat.

(With inputs from agencies.)