Belgium to Cull About 55,000 Birds After H5N1 Outbreak Near Border

Belgium’s federal food safety agency, AFSCA, announced on Jan. 9, 2026 that roughly 55,000 chickens will be culled at a poultry site described as being in a western province near the French border after confirmation of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza. Authorities also established protection and surveillance zones around the infected premises and reported that those zones overlap, a configuration that can intensify movement restrictions and complicate containment operations.

The World Organisation for Animal Health, WOAH, posted a separate notice earlier on Wednesday citing Belgian authorities that an H5N1 outbreak was detected on a turkey farm near Diksmuide in the north of Belgium. WOAH reported the virus killed 319 birds and that the remainder of what it described as a 67,110-strong flock was slaughtered. The two official accounts have not been reconciled in public statements; AFSCA cited roughly 55,000 birds to be culled while WOAH cited a 67,110 flock with 319 deaths prior to slaughter. Possible explanations include different references to separate flocks or farms, rounding or differences between flock size before culling and operationally culled numbers. Belgian veterinary authorities have not yet provided a single unified clarification.

The outbreak comes amid a renewed European resurgence of H5N1. The Netherlands last week announced plans to cull about 161,000 chickens at a central-eastern farm, and France moved to slaughter affected flocks and impose controls following detection of the virus. WOAH also reported a concurrent outbreak in Slovakia. Belgium had earlier ordered all poultry to be kept indoors from Oct. 23, 2025, as part of precautionary measures amid rising regional detections.

The immediate economic effects are twofold: direct supply shocks and added biosecurity costs. Large culls reduce domestic supply of poultry, putting upward pressure on wholesale and retail prices of chicken and turkey at a time when global markets have already been disrupted. ThePoultrySite has documented that recent years’ outbreaks have killed or prompted culling of hundreds of millions of birds globally, a scale that has contributed to higher food prices and strained supply chains. For exporters, cross-border trade could face new restrictions or heightened certification requirements as importing countries respond to proximity and containment status.

Policy implications center on coordination, compensation and surveillance. Overlapping protection and surveillance zones suggest a dense cluster that may require broader movement bans, intensified testing and emergency staffing for culling and disposal. Financial compensation schemes for affected farmers, as used in past outbreaks, will be crucial to prevent farm bankruptcies and encourage rapid reporting. Longer term, governments and industry must weigh investments in vaccination strategies, improved on-farm biosecurity and supply diversification to reduce vulnerability.

Key details remain outstanding for markets and policymakers: whether the AFSCA and WOAH figures refer to the same site or multiple premises, the precise municipal location of the infected site or sites, and the duration and enforcement of the protection and surveillance zones. Clarification from Belgian veterinary authorities will determine the scale of the outbreak and refine market impact forecasts.