Avian flu: the epizootic decreases after leading to the record slaughter of 16 million poultry


In France, the bird flu epizootic began last November and since then 16 million poultry have been slaughtered. A sad record that leaves the sector weakened, even if today the phenomenon is decreasing.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, “the epidemic peak” has indeed “been passed at the end of March”. “The epizootic is decelerating” therefore, after having been more virulent than usual.

Usually, crises linked to avian influenza remain generally confined to the South-West of the country, in particular to duck farms intended for the production of foie gras. The 500 outbreaks recorded in 2021, for example, had led to the slaughter of 3.5 million animals, which were mainly ducks.

Whereas, since November, 1,364 farms have been affected by the virus, including 857 outbreaks in Vendée and in the neighboring departments. Sick animals are killed and those that are healthy suffer the same fate, by prevention.

Not to mention that, for the first time, wild birds have contaminated farms during their migration from southern countries, such as Africa and southern Europe or the Mediterranean basin. This resulted in a second wave, which is coming to an end.

“It has long been said that the risk period was from November 15 to January 15,” notes Gilles Salvat, deputy director general of the research center of the health agency (Anses). But, “if the upward migration is also massively contaminated in the coming years, the period at risk will extend over almost half the year and this is a real problem, especially for poultry raised in the open air” .

Crises with considerable costs

The vice-president of the egg interprofession (CNPO), Loïc Coulombel, explains that it takes “a mandatory decontamination time of 21 consecutive days” before being able to repopulate a decimated farm. Then “the area goes to the ‘surveillance’ stage and we still have to wait three more weeks,” adds Christophe Labour, FNSEA union official in the Pays de la Loire.

Each of these days of crawl space represents a shortfall for breeders. Repeated crises generate considerable costs due to production stoppages and the closure of export markets. The bill is also hefty for the State, which compensates professionals for slaughtered animals and the resulting economic losses.

According to figures from the CNPO, since November the bird flu has caused a loss of “about 6% of national egg production in a country that is 101% self-sufficient”. The INSEE agricultural price index also shows that the price of eggs increased by 13% between February and March and by 63.3% between March 2021 and March 2022. This, due to a very strong increase the cost of production, linked to the war in Ukraine.

Professionals in the sector estimate that it will be necessary to wait until the end of the year, or even the beginning of next year, to recover all the production lost during this epizootic. Assuming, of course, that a new episode of bird flu does not occur in the fall.



Source link -80