France now has 41 outbreaks of avian flu in breeding, including a first in Vendée, Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie announced on Tuesday, citing a “great source of concern”.
The latest report, at the end of last week, reported 26 outbreaks in farms. The virus was detected for the first time in a breeding farm in the North at the end of November. Most cases are now recorded in the South West. “As I speak to you (…) in France we have 41 outbreaks of contamination in breeding”, declared the Minister during a press conference.
He believes the situation is better than last winter, when the epizootic had caused nearly 500 breeding outbreaks and more than three million poultry, mainly ducks, had been slaughtered. “Last year at the same time we were at more than sixty” homes. “It had been many weeks since the spread of the virus was no longer under control at all,” continued Mr. Denormandie.
Between 600,000 and 650,000 poultry slaughtered
Twenty outbreaks are located in the Landes, eight in the North, seven in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, five in the Gers and one in the Vendée, the ministry said. The ministry estimated on December 31 that between 600,000 and 650,000 poultry had been slaughtered since the start of the epizootic. He did not provide updated data on Tuesday.
“What we are monitoring more closely are the areas with the greatest density” of breeding, “in particular the Landes, in particular the Gers and we had a case in Vendée”, indicated Mr. Denormandie. He also defended the confinement imposed, from the beginning of November, of outdoor poultry to avoid contact with migratory birds carrying the virus. The measure, often experienced as heartbreaking by breeders and denounced by part of the profession, had been decreed even earlier, in September, in the areas most at risk.
“Protective measures were necessary. If we had not taken them, the situation that I am describing to you today would be much more dramatic ”, estimated the Minister. France is affected for the fourth time since 2015 by this virus which does not spare its European neighbors either.