Belgium has ordered that all poultry be kept indoors from Thursday following the detection of a bird flu outbreak, the federal food safety agency said on Wednesday, as Europe faces a strong resurgence of the disease.
The spread of bird flu raised concerns among governments and the poultry industry after it killed or led to the culling of hundreds of millions of poultry in recent years, disrupting supply, fuelling higher food prices and raising the risk of a new pandemic.
Neighbouring France took a similar decision to Belgium on Tuesday and the Netherlands last week.
An outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, was detected on a turkey farm near Diksmuide in the north of Belgium this week, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) said earlier on Wednesday.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu killed 319 birds while the rest of the 67,110-strong flock was slaughtered, the Paris-based WOAH said in the report posted on its website, citing Belgian authorities.
Get weekly health news
Receive the latest medical news and health information delivered to you every Sunday.
The WOAH also said on Wednesday that Slovakia had reported an outbreak of bird flu on a poultry farm, in a sign that the deadly virus continues to spread rapidly in Europe.
In its latest outbreak, the Netherlands will cull around 161,000 chickens at a poultry farm in the central-eastern region of the country after bird flu was detected there, the government said in a statement on Wednesday.