News / World AFP 23:31 UTC+8, 2021-01-07 0 French authorities plan to expand their culls of ducks reared for the controversial delicacy foie gras as an outbreak of bird flu rips through the southwest of the country. AFP AFP Ducklings stand in an enclosure at a duck farm in Mugron, southwestern France, on December 29, 2020. French authorities plan to expand their culls of ducks reared for the controversial delicacy foie gras as an outbreak of bird flu rips through the southwest of the country, a producers’ federation said on Thursday. The highly pathogenic H5N8 virus was first detected in a bird in a pet shop on the Mediterranean island of Corsica in November before spreading to duck farms on the mainland in December.