Bird flu outbreak at Flemish farm rattles poultry industry

An outbreak of the highly pathogenic avian influenza – bird flu – has been found at a poultry farm in West Flanders, according to Afsca, the Federal Agency for Food Chain Safety. The chickens at the farm in Menen have all since been slaughtered."This is a new blow for our country's poultry sector, whose economic situation is already very difficult," the Walloon Federation of Agriculture (FWA) said in a statement reacting to the outbreak in Flanders. "This is a disaster for this farm, but also for all the breeders in our country. Indeed, Belgium's industry will lose its status of being untouched by avian influenza and will now face the econom…