 |
||
|
France
extends poultry curbs over bird flu By Megan Goldin The Star, 14Jan 2006 |
||
|
PARIS (Reuters) - France on Friday extended its measures to protect against bird flu, raising the number of regions where poultry must be kept inside to nearly two-thirds of the country, including areas around the capital. As authorities in Turkey struggle to contain an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain, the French government said poultry must now be confined in 58 of the 96 departments in mainland France. "If the threat increased, we could extend stricter confinement measures to the whole of the country," French Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau said after a meeting of government ministers. |
In response to the potential threat of migratory birds carrying the virus, the government in October last year announced confinement measures in 26 departments as well as a ban on feeding poultry outside across the whole country. The measures will run until the end of May. The new departments concerned stretch across France and include Yvelines to the west of Paris and Seine et Marne to the east of the capital. More departments in Brittany, the country's main poultry rearing area, were added to the confinement list.
|
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said authorities would hold a national bird flu readiness exercise in March. A regional exercise would be held in February. "We want everyone to be ready to face every eventuality," he said. A recent bird flu outbreak in Turkey has led to the death of three children and 15 more people have been infected. The Turkish authorities have culled more than 350,000 birds across the country in the past two weeks. |
|
|
||
