Avian flu: 2.9 million poultry slaughtered since the start of the crisis

Nearly three million poultry, including 1.9 million waterfowl, have been slaughtered to curb avian flu since the first cases detected in breeding at the end of November, AFP learned on Tuesday from the Ministry of Agriculture.

According to a census of the ministry, France has 328 households in farms, including 218 in the Landes, in the heart of the country of foie gras, where massive slaughters have been organized.

This is the fourth episode of avian flu that has affected France – and particularly the South West – since 2015. The last one, last winter, led to the slaughter of more than 3.5 million poultry, mainly ducks .

Its European neighbors are not spared, in particular Italy where 18 million poultry have been slaughtered since October.

Faced with the sudden acceleration of the epizootic in January in the south-west of France, the French government decided on January 20 to increase preventive slaughter in an area mainly covering the south of the Landes, but also the west of the Gers and the north of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, so that the virus no longer finds a medium on which to multiply.

“Farmers know that when the virus spreads, there is not much to do but to slaughter healthy animals,” commented a source at the Ministry of Agriculture.

“We had no opposition on the ground”, continued this source, according to which “we have almost finished depopulating the ducks, there are still gallus [volailles de types poulets, dindes, pintades] to be knocked down”.

Avian influenza has a seasonal character. Transported by migrating birds from Asia, it usually begins to develop in October in Europe and continues until April.

These repeated crises generate considerable costs for professionals (production stoppages, closure of export markets) and the State (compensation for slaughtered animals and resulting economic losses).

© 2022 AFP

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