Austria’s Ministry of Health has declared the whole country as a risk area for bird flu (avian influenza) with new, stricter safety measures coming into force from the early hours of Friday. That announcement follows an outbreak of bird flu in the Amstetten district of Lower Austria a week ago, which led to the culling of around 18,000 animals. On Friday, the Austrian military will start an assistance mission in Amstetten and will remove the dead animals and decontaminate lorries and containers. A protection zone has also been set up around the affected farms within a radius of three kilometre…