France on high alert as bird flu virus spreads in Europe.

The French government has issued a national bird flu alert as the virus spreads across Europe, the agriculture ministry reported.

The move will extend a requirement that poultry flocks be kept indoors, which has been in effect in some areas since September.

‘130 bird flu cases or clusters have been detected in wild animals or on farms across Europe since the beginning of August,’ the ministry said in a statement, adding that three cases had been discovered among backyard birds in northeast France.

‘As a result, strengthened prevention measures will be implemented to protect poultry farms.’

The requirement to keep flocks indoors will be modified to account for production practices such as free-range farming, the agriculture ministry informed.

After a farm was reported to have bird flu, Dutch authorities ordered commercial farms to keep all flocks inside last week.

The measures taken by France will not jeopardise the country’s bird flu-free status, which it achieved in early September following a previous wave of bird flu, the ministry said.

Last winter, France culled about 3 million birds in its southwestern duck-breeding region to fight the spread of the virus from wild birds to poultry flocks.