France will cull millions of animals in the northwest of the territory to stop a new bird flu epidemic affecting poultry farmers.
Since the end of February, infections have increased drastically in the west of the territory, in particular in the Vendée department.
At the beginning of the month, the department registered 58 infectionsbut just a few days later, the last balance recorded 187.
“Currently, we eliminate about 1.2 million animals and we estimate that we still have to slaughter 3 million” in the region, the Ministry of Agriculture told the press on Friday.
“We will have phenomenal economic losses that are totally or partially borne by the State. Despite everything, there will be costs for collateral damage, a lack of production [de aves] in the coming weeks,” predicts Christophe Labour, president of the poultry section of the FNSEA agricultural union for the Pays de la Loire region.
The scope of this crisis already exceeds that of last year, which took place especially in the southwest, an area where foie gras is produced.
In that period, nearly 500 outbreaks of bird flu were identified on farms and 3.5 million animals, mainly ducks, were culled.
This season, since the first case was detected at the end of November, 649 outbreaks have been registered on farmsaccording to the Ministry.
And more than four million poultry have already been culled, most of them in the Southwest.
emptied farms
In this way, there are fewer birds on the farms, which makes it difficult for the virus to multiply.
In the northwestern regions of the country, the “wish” of professionals is “to be able to completely clean the area” by the end of April, according to the office of the Minister of Agriculture.
The sector has many farms, some of which are considered “strategic” because they house animals used for breeding.
There are also hatcheries that give birth to future chickens, laying hens and ducks, “really key to the resumption of activity in a few weeks when we have cleaned the area,” says the Ministry.
One farm has already been contaminated, “all the others are protected and the goal is to create a buffer zone around the farms to preserve our productive capacities for the future,” he continues.
In the Southwest, hit by bird flu for the fourth time since 2015, growers are counting on these hatcheries to refill farms emptied by the virus.
Repeated bird flu epidemics generate considerable costs both for professionals (suspension of production, closure of export markets) and for the State (compensation for slaughtered animals and economic losses).
It will be necessary to “learn lessons” from the episode, anticipates the Ministry, “to build a renewed roadmap” with professionals to “prevent this from happening again in the future.”
After last year’s crisis, it was decided to reduce duck production in some areas and impose a confinement of the birds when the risk is “high”, such as in early November.