The Ministry of Agriculture announced on Tuesday that it was raising the risk linked to avian flu from “negligible” to “moderate” given the spread of the virus in wildlife and the detection of a first outbreak in a French breeding farm for fall 2023.
A decree published Tuesday morning in the Official Journal “raises the level of risk from ‘negligible’ to ‘moderate’ throughout the metropolitan territory”, indicates the ministry in a press release, specifying that it “has the effect of strengthening the measures prevention and biosecurity for the breeding sectors but also for hunters”. “This measure is taken as an outbreak in breeding has just been recorded in France in Morbihan, the first case of autumn 2023,” the Ministry of Agriculture said in a press release.
Sheltering of all poultry in areas at particular risk
The epizootic risk to which poultry and other captive birds are exposed in the event of infection of wild birds with a highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAI) is classified into three categories: “negligible”, “moderate” and “high” .
Concretely, the transition to the “moderate” risk level results in the sheltering of all poultry in areas at particular risk (ZRP) or waterflies aged less than 42 days in areas at risk of diffusion ( ZRD) breeding by wildlife. All vehicles transporting poultry must also be covered and restrictions put in place regarding “gatherings of poultry and captive birds”. Furthermore, “the transport and use of decoy birds” for hunting also has restrictions, the ministry specifies in its press release.
48 outbreaks of avian flu detected in Europe since August 1
Avian flu, which is prevalent in Europe, Asia, Africa and Asia, has led to the euthanasia of tens of millions of poultry in recent years in France. This risk linked to this virus was lowered to “negligible” in July. Before that, France had remained at a “high” risk level from November 2022, before dropping to “moderate” in April.
The decree in the Official Journal specifies that the decision to raise the risk level was taken “following the identification of infection dynamics in migratory wild avifauna in neighboring countries”. “For several weeks, Europe has recorded a dynamic of spread of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAI) in migratory wild fauna (greylag geese and barnacles in particular) but also in farms in Northern Europe (Germany, Denmark , Netherlands) and central Europe, particularly in Hungary,” said the Ministry of Agriculture.
According to the latest weekly bulletin from the French animal health epidemiological surveillance platform, 48 outbreaks of avian flu have been detected in Europe since August 1, mainly in the United Kingdom, Hungary and Bulgaria. Outbreaks have also recently emerged in Italy, “in an area with a high density of livestock farming”.
The cases detected concern “a certain number of countries (Denmark, Netherlands, Germany in particular) located upstream of the migration routes which cross France”, specifies the ministry. “The infection pressure linked to migratory wildlife will therefore gradually increase in France,” it is added. At this stage, 4 common cranes in the Meuse and Camargue, as well as a herring gull in Morbihan have been confirmed as infected.
It was “at close distance” from this gull that the very first contaminated breeding was detected on Monday. This is a turkey farm in Morbihan and “all measures are being taken to manage this first outbreak on farms in the fall of 2023,” said the ministry.
Vaccination against bird flu compulsory in farms with more than 250 ducks
In the hope of finally controlling the virus, the government had also made vaccination against avian flu compulsory since October 1 in farms with more than 250 ducks, excluding breeding ducks. The “reinforced” measures linked to raising the level of risk “complement” this campaign, said the same source.
Ducks have been identified as a vector for the spread of the virus as they excrete it into the environment several days before showing symptoms. Highly pathogenic avian influenza affected France from 2015 to 2017 then almost continuously since the end of 2020. Since the summer of 2021, 32 million poultry have been slaughtered in the country.