Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 9, 2026
1 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
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Belgium will cull 55,000 chickens after detecting an H5N1 bird flu outbreak near France, impacting local agriculture.
BRUSSELS, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Belgium will cull around 55,000 chickens after detecting an outbreak of the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu in a western province of the country near its border with France, the federal food safety agency, AFSCA, said on Friday.
A large part of the protection and surveillance zones established in connection with the outbreak overlaps with existing zones created after an outbreak last month and are partly located in France, AFSCA said in a statement.
The European Food Safety Authority said in December that an unprecedented number of bird flu outbreaks among wild birds and their wide geographic spread were driving an early and strong wave of the disease in Europe last year.
Israel on Tuesday reported an outbreak of H5N1 on a farm in the north of the country.
(Reporting by Louise Rasmussen Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
Bird flu outbreaks can significantly impact agriculture by leading to the culling of infected animals, disrupting supply chains, and causing economic losses for farmers and related industries.
H5N1 is a subtype of the avian influenza virus that is highly pathogenic and can cause severe disease in birds and humans. It is known for its potential to spread rapidly among poultry.
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