France detects H5N8 bird flu on duck farm

Ducks at a fresh market in Taipei wait to be slaughtered January 29, 2004. Taiwan found new cases of H5N2, a milder strain of avian flu, in ducks in the southwestern county of Yunlin on Thursday and plans to cull 10,000 ducks in a bid to stop the spread of the disease. (REUTERS/Simon Kwong)
PARIS – France has detected a case of the highly contagious H5N8 strain of bird flu on a duck farm in the southwest, the agriculture ministry said on Friday.
The outbreak, which killed 2,000 out of a flock of 5,000 ducks on the farm in the Tarn region, follows a case of H5N8 confirmed among wild birds in northern France this week and is the latest of a series of outbreaks in Europe.