24 February 2006
The French agriculture minister said the H5 avian influenza virus had been found on a turkey farm in south-eastern France, but it was not immediately clear whether it was the H5N1 strain. Dominique Bussereau said more tests were needed to determine if the case involved the deadly H5N1 strain.
If confirmed, it would be the first time the disease has spread to poultry stocks in France - the European Union's largest poultry producer.
Earlier authorities sealed off a farm with more than 11,000 turkeys in the south-eastern Ain region, the same area where France's first two cases of the H5N1 avian influenza virus - in two wild ducks - were confirmed. The French agriculture ministry ordered an exclusion zone be set up around the farm in Joyeux in Ain.