An outbreak of bird flu was detected this Sunday, December 19 in a duck farm in the Landes, the main department producing foie gras.
“It is located in Hastingues”, on the edge of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, told AFP Marie-Hélène Cazaubon, president of the Landes chamber of agriculture.
“The clinical signs observed on Friday left no room for doubt and it was decided to depopulate the farm on Saturday without waiting for the results” Sunday of the final analysis.
This confirmed a “contamination by the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus of the H5N1 type”, specified in a press release the prefecture, which has set up around the outbreak a protection zone with a radius of 3 km and a surveillance zone with a radius of 10 km.
Prevention that seems to limit the risks
From the beginning of November, in order to avoid contact with migratory birds potentially carrying the virus, the health authorities had asked all outdoor and organic producers in mainland France to confine their poultry.
“95% of farms are under shelter, but this does not completely prevent the virus from circulating. It can also happen by man, on his boots for example, ”explained Marie-Hélène Cazaubon, herself a duck breeder.
According to the latter, there are fewer poultry on the farms than usual at this time because the operators “can only keep a number of birds which corresponds to their capacity for sheltering” and because “certain producers do not ‘did not wish to take back ducks during this period ”.
In addition, the poultry and ducks intended for the end-of-year celebrations “have already mostly left” farms.